The Postcard
A postally unused Primavera postcard with a divided back on which is printed:
'Abstract Sculpture based on
the Screw by Kenneth Martin.
Photography by Dr. A. S. Playfair.'
Kenneth Martin
Kenneth Laurence Martin OBE, who was born in Sheffield on the 13th. April 1905, was an English painter and sculptor who, with his wife Mary Martin and Victor Pasmore, was a leading figure in the revival of Constructionism.
-- Kenneth Martin - The Early Years
Kenneth Martin’s father was a former soldier who worked in Sheffield as a coal clerk, and supported his son at Sheffield School of Art during 1921 - 1923.
After his father's death, Martin worked in the city as a graphic designer, occasionally studying at the art school part-time.
He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1929 - 1932, and there met Mary Balmford, whom he married in 1930.
-- Kenneth Martin's Career
During the 1930's Kenneth painted in a naturalistic style, and was associated with the Euston Road School along with Victor Pasmore. During the 1940's Martin's work began to emphasise elements of structure and design until 1948–49 when, following Pasmore's lead, it became purely abstract.
From 1946-1951 Martin taught at St. John's Wood Art School and afterwards was a visiting teacher at Goldsmith's School of Art until 1968.
In 1951 also Kenneth and his wife produced Broadsheet 'devoted to abstract art', which contained reproductions of their work, and essays defining their new direction. Other essays explaining his ideas followed over the years, notably in the journals Architectural Design and Studio International.
Kenneth's first sculptural commission was "Twin Screws" for the 6th. congress of the International Union of Architects in London in 1961. Other public art commissions followed.
As well as works among national exhibits at the 4th. San Marino Biennale (1963) and the 8th. Tokyo Biennale (1965), Kenneth was represented in such surveys of contemporary trends as "This is Tomorrow" (Whitechapel Gallery, 1956).
His work also featured in the international touring exhibitions of "British Constructivist Art" (1961), "Konstructive Kunst" (1969), "Aspects of Abstract Painting in Britain" (1974), "Recent British Art" (British Council, 1977), and "Pier + Ocean: Construction in the Art of the Seventies" (Arts Council, 1980).
-- Kenneth Martin's Honours
Among the honours Kenneth received was a gold medal at the 20th. International Congress of Artists and Critics in 1965, and the OBE in 1971.
In 1976 he was given an honorary doctorate at the Royal College of Art.
-- Kenneth Martin's Work
Though there was a tendency towards abstraction in British post-war art, it often had a representational base, as in the sculptures of Lynn Chadwick or, at first, Martin's own painting "Chalk Farm" of 1949.
However Martin swiftly followed this with the purer abstraction of lines and geometrical shapes. Identifying this transition in his Broadsheet essay, Martin explained that:
"What is generally termed 'abstract' is not to
be confused with the abstraction from nature
and its reduction and distortion to a pictorial
form.
Abstract painting is the result of a creative
process exactly the opposite of abstraction."
Because such art was constructed according to scientific or mathematical models, the Martins turned to making reliefs and moving sculptures which they called "constructionist", although acknowledging their link with earlier European Constructivism.
Kenneth Martin's "Screwmobile" of 1953, with its brass strips mounted in helical form, is considered a particularly representative example of that approach.
Later static constructions with implied kinetic rhythms included the small standing "Oscillation" at the Whitworth Art Gallery and the monumental "Construction in Aluminium" for the Cambridge University Department of Engineering, both dated 1967.
Kenneth theorised at the time that he created these works:
"An organized series of events, which the
constructing process becomes, defines the
whole character of a work. The mental and
the physical are tied together in the
succession of events. So that practical things,
through the understanding of their nature,
can result in an imaginative edifice."
Diversifying from such works, he developed his adjustable "Rotary Rings" (1968) and the curved narrow blades of his motorised "Kinetic Monument" (1977).
After 1969, Martin began work on the seemingly endless process of his Chance and Order series of drawings and prints, exploiting their direction, linear thickness and colour, so that:
"Not only does chance define position, it gives
sequence also. The points of intersection on a
grid of squares are numbered, and the numbers
are written on small cards and then picked at
random.
A line is made between each successive pair
of numbers as they are picked out.
Subsequently, varying the way a time sequence
of drawing the lines was used, or changing the
nature of the grid, could yield a succession of
drawings of a variety of invention within the
range of one set of pairings."
The joint exhibition of the work of Kenneth and Mary Martin mounted at the Tate St. Ives in 2007 was their first joint public-gallery exhibition since 1971. Focussing on his mobiles as well as the Chance and Order series, it enabled restoration of his 1955 homage to Alexander Calder, the "Mobile Reflector" of 1955, which had become buckled and unbalanced between exhibitions over the years.
-- The Death of Kenneth Martin
Kenneth died in London at the age of 79 on the 18th. November 1984.
Following Kenneth's death, his work continued to be exhibited internationally and in solo retrospectives.
Albert Libertad
So what else happened on the day that Kennthe Martin was born?
Well, on the 13th. April 1905, Albert Libertad first published the journal L'Anarchie in order to promote the cause of individual anarchism in France.
The journal lasted until the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, with the final isue being published on the 22nd. July 1914.
H. T. Craven
The day also marked the death at the age of 87 of the English actor and playwright H. T. Craven.
Henry Thornton Craven, who was born Henry Thornton on the 26th. February 1818, was an English actor and dramatist.
-- H. T. Craven - The Early Years
Henry was born in London, the son of Robert Thornton, a schoolmaster in Holborn. Starting life as a publisher's clerk in Paternoster Row, Henry subsequently acted as amanuensis to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and began writing for Bentley's Miscellany.
Ambitious to become a dramatist, Henry took to the stage, making his first appearance at York in 1840, and his London debut soon after at Fanny Kelly's Theatre in Soho.
In 1841 Henry was acting on the Sunderland circuit, and in 1842 his first play, Bertram the Avenger, was produced at North Shields. He produced his second play, Miserrimus, at Portsmouth late in 1843.
In the spring of 1844 Henry joined Robert Keeley and Mary Anne Keeley at the Lyceum Theatre, London, and after both acting and writing for the smaller theatres, he was in 1850 engaged at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. There, on the occasion of William Macready's farewell in February 1851, he played Malcolm to the tragedian's Macbeth.
On the 12th. June 1851 Henry's operetta The Village Nightingale was produced at the Strand Theatre, with himself in one of the characters. Eliza (1827–1908), daughter of the composer Sidney Nelson, took the leading female role. In November 1851 the two were engaged by Lloyd of Edinburgh for the Theatre Royal company, with Henry as principal stage director. In that city they were married on the 12th. May 1852.
-- H. T. Craven in Australia, and Success as a Dramatist
In June 1854 the Cravens left for Australia. In Sydney they fulfilled a successful engagement at the Royal Victoria Theatre.
In partnership with the actor W. H. Stephens, Craven then refurbished the little (over 1,000 seats) Lyceum theatre in the same city, which as "Our Lyceum" opened in 1855. In April 1857 the Cravens appeared at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, in several of Craven's own pieces.
On their return to England, Eliza withdrew from performing, while Craven continued to write and perform. The Post Boy was first seen at the Strand Theatre on the 31st. October 1860.
Frederick Robson produced and played in Craven's domestic drama The Chimney Corner at the Olympic Theatre, opening on the 21st. February 1861. Miriam's Crime opened at the Strand Theatre on the 9th. October 1863. These plays were successful.
-- Milky White
Craven designed for Robson the title-character in Milky White, which was first produced at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, opening on the 20th. June 1864.
Robson's sudden death in August 1864 altered Craven's plans, and he himself took on the title-role when the piece was brought out at the Strand on the 28th. September 1864.
Milky White enjoyed a run and a revival at the Strand, and was subsequently popular in the provinces.
On the 29th. September 1864 the Daily Telegraph reported:
"The author has not only to be congratulated on
the literary power and constructive skill with which
he has worked out an exceedingly original idea,
but he has also to be complimented on the
cleverness with which he has embodied the
effective character who is the hero of the story so
happily imagined.
Already well known as a dramatist, his histrionic
achievements have, in this country at least, scarcely
been considered as prominently associated with his
name. It would be difficult to name any comedian
who could have more thoroughly realized the part.
The writing abounds in quaint turns of expression,
some of them so daringly tipped with verbal
flippancies that the serious situations are
occasionally endangered by their utterance."
-- H. T. Craven - The Later Years
In the dual role of actor and dramatist Craven scored again at the New Royalty on the 17th. October 1866, when Meg's Diversion opened, with himself as Jasper, the play running for 330 nights.
In 1873 Henry made his last provincial tour. His last play Too True, an historical drama, was produced at the Duke's, opening on the 22nd. January 1876, and in this he made his final appearance on the stage.
Many of his numerous plays were published by Duncombe, Lacy, and French. In 1876 he published a novel, The Old Tune.
One critic noted in 1880:
"Mr Craven is a genuine humorist, and contrives
to blend the pathetic and comic sides of human
nature in a manner that places him in the front
rank of living actors.
Since Mr Robson, whose style Mr Craven recalls,
no English actor has equalled him in presenting
beneath a droll exterior underlying touches of
subtle pathos."
Craven died at his home in Clapham Park, on 13 April 1905. His widow died in Eastbourne on the 20th. March 1908.
Both were laid to rest in Norwood Cemetery. Two of their four children survived them, a daughter and a son, Tom Sidney Craven, who became a dramatist and actor.
