John Bratby: Everything But The Kitchen Sink Including The Kitchen Sink

Jerwood Gallery, Rock-A-Nore Road, Hastings, Saturday, January 30, to Sunday, April 17

ARTLOVERS from across the world have contributed to the first major retrospective to an artist who spent his last years living in Hastings.

Jerwood Gallery held a Bring Us Your Bratby day in October, encouraging owners of John Bratby’s estimated 3,000 works to bring any they had for the retrospective.

“It was a bit of an experiment,” says Jerwood Gallery director Liz Gilmore. “We knew there were a lot of Bratbys works around – he lived in Hastings for 16 years up until his death in 1992. His works sold quite cheaply, so lots of people have them from all walks of life.”

In total between 120 and 130 works are held in public art collections, with the rest held by private owners.

A team of Bratby experts - including owner of the Bratby archive Julian Hartnoll, exhibition curator Victoria Howarth, artist Tom Hammick, valuer Mark Ellen from Burstow and Hewett Auctioneers and Bratby’s former assistant Charlie Reeves - picked a total of 66 paintings for the display from 300 submissions.

Included are portraits of Paul McCartney, Tom Bell, Claire Rayner, Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Arthur Askey, with many lent by the subjects or their surviving relatives.

The exhibition was assisted by Bratby’s widow Patti, who as well as sharing stories of their life together helped recreate Bratby’s Hastings studio in the gallery.

Gilmore describes Bratby as a challenging character, whose difficult persona contributed towards a critical fall from grace after early success as an enfant terrible of the art world.

“He was a superstar in the late 1950s, the equivalent of Damien Hirst today,” she says. “He represented England at the 1956 Venice Biennale and he was commissioned to provide paintings for the Alec Guinness film The Horse’s Mouth in 1958.

“But he became unfashionable, and his quality began to vary. He was a dark and at times quite disturbed character. Going through his archive we are pulling out all sorts of things that contributed to his downfall. Sex was the prominent feature. In his diaries his mind is very focused in that direction. When he was at the Royal College of Art he was seen as a misanthrope.

“He could be seen hanging out at pubs observing rather than engaging with people.”

The exhibition starts with the works he is most famous for – many of which were loaned by Hartnoll. The decision was made to explore Bratby’s work thematically, rather than attempt to explore it chronologically.

Bratby was described as part of the realist Kitchen Sink school - alongside the likes of Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith – owing to his use of everyday objects from rubbish bins to beer bottles as subjects.

Like most movements it fell out of fashion with the critics – not helped by Bratby’s prolific work rate. He once produced 55 paintings in 18 days focusing on a sunflower he had grown from a seed he bought with Patti in the Netherlands.

“People loved that he captured everyday life,” says Gilmore. “It wasn’t just the interior of Bratby’s own home, but it was everyday people.

“Later he would write to celebrities to ask if they would like to be painted by him. In Michael Palin’s diary he talks about sitting for three and a half hours to be painted by Bratby [the painting is in the exhibition], and seeing a painting of Paul McCartney on the wall.

“There is a real divide in his portraiture. Some are painted in three-and-a-half hours, others such as the astonishing 1967 portrait of Lord and Lady Attenborough have three images of Bratby himself as if he’s there painting them. You can see a real difference and why he was criticised.”

She hopes the exhibition will lead to an increased recognition of Bratby’s work.

“We have seen a great public interest in the exhibition,” she says. “We have had work come to us from New York. We will consider whether we will have another show once this one is opened.

“It will be an exciting moment to open the doors and for people to experience the John Bratby they may not have known.”

Open Tues to Sun 11am to 5pm, £8/£3.50, residents £3. Call 01424 728377.