Mabel Pakenham-Walsh

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mabel Pakenham-Walsh
Portrait--Mabel Pakehham Walsh.jpg
The artist in 2012 with sculpture, Leg of Bont
Born
Mabel Pakehham-Walsh

(1922-09-00)September 1922
Lancaster, England
Died19 August 2013(2013-08-19) (aged 75)
Aberystwyth, Wales
NationalityBritish
Known forSculpture, Painting, Drawing

Mabel Pakenham-Walsh (2 September 1937 − 19 August 2013)[1][2] was a British painter, sculptor and designer,[3] and pioneering female artist[citation needed] in post-war European figurative art. She worked in many mediums, but is particularly well known for her colourful wooden relief sculptures.[4] Her work was significantly influenced by primitive and outsider art, and created primarily from recycled materials,[1][3][5][6] earning her recognition as an early eco artist.[5]

Life[]

Mabel Pakenham-Walsh was born in Lancaster, England,[7] the daughter of Robert Pakenham-Walsh,[8] a prominent psychiatrist.[1] Born with congenital hip dysplasia, she suffered lifelong physical disability; and in 1957, while a student at university, she was badly injured in a major car accident which compounded her disability.[5][4][6][7] Consequently, Pakenham-Walsh campaigned throughout her life for disability rights,[6] especially for children and youths, ultimately leaving a legacy with the to assist disabled students in future.[9] Pakenham-Walsh was active in the London arts scene throughout the 1960s and '70s, and befriended many significant figures, including Lord Snowdon, , Martin Leman, Maeve and Mervyn Peake, Wendy Ramshaw, and Tom Stoppard.[10][11] Pakenham-Walsh also taught woodcarving classes to Further Education students in Kent, England.[7] In the late 1970s she moved to Aberystwyth, Wales, where she continued to create, and became a local legend and beloved eccentric.[1][12]

Education[]

Pakenham-Walsh trained as an artist at Lancaster and Morecambe College of Arts and Crafts (1954–58) and Wimbledon College of Art (1958-59).[3][6] The writer and artist Mervyn Peake was an early mentor.[1]

Career[]

From the beginning of her career, Pakenham-Walsh created drawings, paintings, and sculptures made almost exclusively from mundane and salvaged materials;[1][3][5][6] this unique strategy was borne of necessity as Pakenham-Walsh encountered "social barriers associated with being a female artist in the mid twentieth century, which made it difficult for her [...] to acquire raw materials for her art."[5][4] Pakenham-Walsh's first published artwork was in the early 1960s when her biro drawings appeared in the literary journal Transatlantic Review.[13][14] At that time, she was employed as a designer at Pinewood Studios, where she created set-pieces for major motion-pictures, including Cleopatra; she also worked as a sculptor at Shepperton Studios.[1][7][15][16] From 1965 to 1982, she exhibited at the Summer Exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.[17][18] During this era, select London artists rejected abstraction and conceptualism to pursue "the depiction of the human figure and everyday landscape";[19] Pakenham-Walsh also sought to depict ordinary daily life, creating art that was both "playful and profound [to] invoke the deep time of human nature."[5] Pakenham-Walsh "exhibited widely in her lifetime in many art galleries and museums" worldwide.[1][16] Her work has been shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and is held in numerous public and private collections, including: the National Library of Wales, the Ulster Museum, Aberystwyth University, and the ; the actor and art historian Vincent Price and the photographer Lord Snowdon also admired and collected her work.[4][16][20][21][22]

Selected solo exhibitions[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "Cambrian News Obituary". Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh". WikiTree. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "School of Art collections biography". Aberystwyth University. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Telfer, Pete (Director); Briggs, Alice (Interviewer); Szinner, Christine (Research Intern) (2012). Mabel Pakenham-Walsh A Retrospective (video). Culture Colony. Retrieved 14 August 2016.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Ceredigion Museum FaceBook page". Ceredigion Museum. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Evans, Stuart (15 September 2013). "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e McNicholls, Julie (2 February 2006). "I cheated death five times..." Cambrian News. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  8. ^ "Historical record". MyHeritage. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  9. ^ "2012 Annual Review" (PDF). Snowdon Trust. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh Papers". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 7 August 2016.[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh Papers". National Library of Wales. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  12. ^ "Remembering Mabel Pakenham-Walsh". Letter from Aberystwyth. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  13. ^ "The Transatlantic Review No. 11, Notes on Contributors". JSTOR 41512113 – via JSTOR. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ "The Transatlantic Review No. 12, Notes on Contributors". JSTOR 41514022 – via JSTOR. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh Papers". The National Library of Wales. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  16. ^ Jump up to: a b c Davies, Clive (1 January 1982). "Woodcarving in Coalshed Brings Fame". Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  17. ^ "Royal Academy Exhibitors, 1905—1970 Vol. 5". The Getty Research Center: EP Publishing Limited. 1981. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ^ "Royal Academy Exhibitors, 1971—1989". The Getty Research Center: Hilmarton Manor Press. 1989. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ^ Brooks, Julian; Potts, Timothy (2016). "London Calling". getty.edu. Getty Publications. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  20. ^ "Ten To One author interview - Yasmin Ali". Good Reads. Retrieved 11 August 2016.
  21. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh". Aberystwyth University. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  22. ^ "Crafts Council Collections". Crafts Council. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
  23. ^ "Mabel Pakenham-Walsh: painted wood carvings and paintings". Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  24. ^ Williams, Norman (23 February 2012). "Mabel has a Retrospective". Cambrian News. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  25. ^ "Celebrated artist and storyteller". BBC Cymru Fyw. Retrieved 13 August 2016.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""