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TIMELY CONNECTIONS : FINDING MATHIAS Timely Connections is a joint exhibition with ceramicist Tony Bennett.
Rye Art Gallery, 107 High Street, Rye, East Sussex. TN31 7JE. Saturday 5th October to Sunday 3rd November 2024. Monday and Wednesday to Saturday 11 - 5; Sunday 11- 4; closed on Tuesday
TIMELY CONNECTIONS : FINDING MATHIAS
The ‘Finding Mathias’ series of drawings and paintings is inspired by the life and times of
the German artist Mathias Hess (1899 - 1967) and the kindness of two families - one of
which is my own - that he encountered when a prisoner of war in East Sussex. Two of
Mathias’s watercolours that I have known since childhood are included in the exhibition.
Admirably, Mathias used his enforced stay to creative purpose, producing many drawings
and a number of paintings of local subjects, from Herstmonceux Castle to Rye’s Lion
Street with St. Mary’s church and much in between. He was encouraged in this by Harry
Frost, a staff member at Normanhurst Court near Battle (the largest PoW camp in the area
where Mathias was initially held) who helped him obtain basic art materials. In Harry’s
words, the Frost family “often entertained him at Beals Oak” - their house near Wadhurst -
and Mathias repaid them by making drawings of the family and of Beals Oak.
Mathias was to be one of the very few PoW’s billeted in local homes, his hosts being my
grandparents Arthur and Phoebe Crew at “Glenthorne”, their house on Battle Road,
St.Leonards on Sea. They came to own several of his paintings. The two watercolours,
one of Bodiam and the other of Herstmonceux Castle, hung in the sitting room and a large
oil of Hastings Castle, sent from Germany as a gift in 1950, dominated the hall. These
fascinated me as a child and would have been the first original artworks that I came to
know. They had the advantage of being subjects that I could visit with my parents and so
compare with Mathias’s representations, contributing to my understanding of what was
artistically possible.
My grandfather had been severely wounded in the First World War, affecting his health for
the rest of his life. Nonetheless, he and my grandmother were able to welcome someone
into their home who had recently been on the opposing side. This symbolises for me the
overriding importance of finding personal and cultural connections and of maintaining such
links in our own fractured times. It is something that has very much been in my mind
whilst making these works.
August 2024.
Seeing Beyond Oil 34 x 34cm £1250.00
Who was Mathias 1? Pencil 52 x 42cm £680.00
Who was Mathias 2? Oil 34 x 27cm £1150.00 SOLD
Model City Oil 44 x 54cm £2700.00
Metamorphosen Pencil/Pastel 58 x 90cm £1750.00
The P.o.W. Tree Pastel/Pencil 52 x 42cm £720.00
Beals Oak Remembered Pastel/Pencil 52 x 42cm £720.00
If You Should Return Oil 65 x 85cm £3250.00
In the High Round Room Oil 25 x 20cm £800.00 SOLD
A Timely Connection of Castles Oil 95 x 80cm £4800.00
The Visitors' Book Pencil 60 x 60cm £2100.00
OVER THERE - a sequence of four paintings to a short story by David.
Over There Oil 34 x 27cm £890.00 SOLD
Leaving the Obersee Oil 34 x 27cm £890.00
A Brief Glimpse of Valhalla Oil 34 x 44cm £1450.00 SOLD
The World Beyond the Mountains Oil 64 x 64cm £3100.00
TWO WORKS BY MATHIAS HESS (1899 - 1967)
Mathias Hess. Bodiam Castle Private Collection
Mathias Hess. Herstmonceux Castle. Private Collection
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