2 THE  ART OBSERVER Inside this issue 2 Spectacular Art Bus Launches exhibition by Sir Peter Blake and Sandra Blow 3 Artist Donates Painting for Haiti 4-5 Tributes for Eric J Morten, Bookseller and Proud Landlord of Warburton Street 6-7 The Dawn of Sculpture 8 Whitworth Art Gallery Scoops Shares of £75,000 Art Fund Collect Funding Pot for a Second Time 9 Buy Art Fair, Manchester Moves to Spinningfields for 2010 10-11 The Art Lover’s House, Mons, France 12 Poet Laureate Unveils New Glass Artwork at the John Rylands Library New York State of Mind - Photographs by Jennie Keegan 13 How Public Art Can Turn a Space into a Place 14-15 8 Questions for Artist Richard Clare 16 Jupiter Artland - In a World of its Own 17 Artists Given the Chop? Not at Mr Thomas’s The Arcelormittal Orbit - Thumbs Down! 18 Picasso, Painter and Communist, at Tate Liverpool 19 What’s On - Compiled by Ivy Wykes Didsbury Arts Festival 2010 20 Gallery Celebrates Decade in Didsbury Cont. from Page 1 THE ART BUS  was designed by Sir Peter, with bold imagery of his work emblazoned on the exterior of the bus. The inside was transformed from a bus as we know it into a very special space comprising comfortable lounge/entertainment area with bar on the lower deck. Light- studded stairs lead to the upper deck which has become a gallery, with a balcony for added space. The roof of the bus had to be raised by six inches to accommodate taller people and ensure that the artwork could be viewed properly. The bus rocks with the sound of 60’s music that takes you back to the days of The Beatles (and Sir Peter Blake’s famous design for their album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’). The official launch of the CCA Art Bus was in May 2009 when the bus went on a special tour of iconic London pop art loca- tions such as Battersea Power Station and Abbey Road. At each location invited guests, such as Storm Thorgerson, Kevin Spacey and Helen Mirren, joined the bus with Sir Peter Blake who was the host. As the Art Bus evolved it became apparent that it could also be used as an educational tool, pro- viding an exciting platform from which to introduce school chil- dren to the world of visual arts. It has been taken to schools, art colleges and public venues as well as selected galleries. Gallery owner, Wendy Levy, said “It was so exciting having the Art Bus here for the opening of this exhibition. There was quite a lot of organising to be done because Warburton Street is such an old, narrow street but I knew we would be able to accommo- date the bus and it was one of the most memorable occasions at the gallery and within the street.” The bus was showing additional works by Sir Peter Blake, giving extra space to Wendy’s gallery where the vibrant work of Sandra Blow and the distinctive work of Peter Blake gave a retrospective feel to the gallery. Peter Blake, known as the ‘Godfather of Pop-Art’, was born in 1932 on the south-east fringes of London. From a young age he developed an interest in many kinds of popu- lar entertainment such as cine- ma, the circus, jazz and pop music, and his emersion in this popular culture was apparent in his early work. Blake’s enthusi- asm for mass culture during the 1950’s brought him to the fore- front of the Pop Art Movement, even before Andy Warhol. His roots have grown out of brilliant collages, everyday objects, and brought a joy and magic to them, as seen in his stunning Tate Gallery retrospec- tive exhibition in 1983, and again at the Tate Liverpool retro- spective exhibition in 2007. Sandra Blow was born in 1925 in London and became one of the leading lights of the abstract art movement of the 1950’s.   At fifteen years old, Sandra Blow was one of the youngest stu- dents ever to attend St Martin’s School of Art in London.  From St Martin’s she went first to the Royal Academy Schools and then to the Academia di Belle Arti, in Rome. It was in Italy that, at the age of 22, she met the artist Alberto Burri, ten years her sen- ior. Burri was on the brink of breaking into abstract art himself and introduced her to the sub- ject. Soon, she was attracting glittering prizes, winning the British section of the International Guggenheim Award in 1960 and the John Moore’s Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 1961. Sandra Blow stands alone as the earliest and most original female artist in Britain able to challenge the bar-room “macho” cult asso- ciated with free, informal abstract work. Over a career of more than half a century her works are found in the V & A in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She produced innovative, arresting and exuberant work into her late seventies with her original limit- ed edition silkscreens being an integral part of her body of work. Blow’s works are not, as one might suppose, the inspira- tion of a moment but the result of painstaking experimentation. Collage featured regularly in her work from the mid 1950’s right into this century, with ‘found’ objects such as sacking or plas- ter, giving extra dramatic texture and focus to her confidently geometric shapes. Sandra Blow died in 2006 at the age of 81, but she left behind her an immortal legacy for the art world. This exhibition by two great Royal Academicians ran through- out June, finishing on 3 July at the Wendy Levy Gallery, in Didsbury. The work of these two artists can still be purchased through the gallery. Check out the website: www.wendyjlevy- art.com. Tel: 0161 446 4880. email: wendy@wendyjlevy-art.com. Gallery opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 5pm. THE  ART  OBSERVER Editor Features Wendy Levy Gaynor Lloyd, Jonathan Drage, Melissa Bell, Helen Campbell, Derek Hunt, David Neal, Ian Simpson, Molly Byrne Robinson, Sarah Lee, Lucinda Baker, Simon Morris, Claire Richards, Rob Wilkinson Advertising Lesley Brush, Business Generation Mobile Number 07815 207609 Published by Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Ltd 17 Warburton Street, Didsbury, Manchester M20 6WA Tel/Fax 0161 446 4880 Email: wendy@wendyjlevy-art.com www.wendyjlevy-art.com Printed by mfour Design and Artwork by Richard Clare © Wendy J Levy Contemporary Art Ltd THE  ART  OBSERVER WELCOME  to the seventh issue of The Art Observer. We hope you find it of interest and would welcome your feedback by contacting: news@wendyjlevy-art.com July 2010 Interior of the Art Bus