Constable Country & Beyond  1830-2016 celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of John Constable in East Bergholt, Suffolk.

 

It brings together a group of first published state mezzotints from Constable's English Landscape Scenery portfolio, alongside twentieth artists associated with the Stour Valley landscape and courtesy of Bernard Jacobson Gallery examples from the For John Constable portfolio published in 1976.

 

The Flatford Mill Study Centre attracted artists to teach including John Nash and John Addyman and students such as Mary Newcomb, all of whom feature in this exhibition.  Strong watercolours of the River Stour by Alfred Munnings and Rowland Suddaby contrast with a poetic etching and aquatint by Richard Bawden of pollarded willows.  A spectacular linocut from 1958 by Blair Hughes-Stanton dates from when he was based at Manningtree and produced ambitious images of the Stour valley.  Peter Kennard's photomontage Haywain with Cruise Missiles, 1983 uses the ubiquity of Constable's work for his own political messaging, whilst Chris Orr's watercolour Constable Country wittily satirises what Flatford Mill has come to today with mass cultural tourism on the site.

 

The For John Constable portfolio was published by Bernard Jacobson Gallery in 1976 and we have included examples by Ivon Hitchens, Howard Hodgkin, John Hoyland, Ivor Abrahams, Bill Brandt,  William Tillyer and Richard Smith.