Sven BERLIN (artist, 1911-1999)
A suite of 17 original ink and wash paintings on paper,
an alternative ‘Stations of the Cross’ or ‘Passion of Christ’ [probably Isle
of Wight: c.1973-1974]. Various sizes, the largest: 31 x 22 inches, and the
smallest is 19 x 14 inches, most have titles added within the composition, all
are signed ‘Sven’ or with his ‘SB’ monogram, a couple are dated.
Condition: see images.
A masterly series from this controversial St.Ives / Crypt
Group artist.
“Sven Paul Berlin (14 September 1911 – 14 December 1999)
was an English painter, writer and sculptor. He is now best known for his
controversial fictionalised autobiography The Dark Monarch, which was withdrawn just days after publication
in 1962 following legal action.[1] The book became the theme of an exhibition in Tate St Ives in autumn 2009 when it was re-published.
Berlin was born and grew up in Sydenham, south-east London, in a conventional household
for the time,[2] though he was obliged to leave school due to financial
pressures at the age of twelve, pursuing a successful career as an adagio dancer until his mid-twenties, where he met his first wife,
Helga.
In 1938 he moved to Cornwall to develop his artistic skills, and came under the
influence of Dr Frank Turk, an Exeter University educationalist, and attended lectures on
philosophy, ancient cultures and the arts. A son, Paul, and daughter, Janet
(who later adopted the name Greta), were born in Cornwall. In the Second World War Berlin registered as a conscientious objector, and worked in the market garden established by the art
critic Adrian Stokes at Little Park Owles, Carbis Bay, outside St Ives, where he met fellow artists Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. He also began research into the naive artist Alfred Wallis, and his book, the first profile to be written,
was eventually published by Tambimuttu's Poetry London in 1949. Berlin later renounced
his position as a conscientious objector after observing some distressing naval
bombing in the English Channel and joined the Army, taking part in
the D-Day landings as a Forward Observer in France, Holland and
Belgium. As well as writing about his experiences to Adrian Stokes, he also
produced a series of pen and ink drawings of army life, local people and
children caught up in the War. A breakdown led to his return, culminating in a
divorce soon afterwards.
Berlin
was a member of the burgeoning artistic community around St
Ives on his return and met a local girl, Jacqueline Moran, with whom
he moved into a cottage provided by the writer Mabel
Lethbridge. He met his second wife, the artist Juanita
Fisher in 1949 while living in a small concrete building next to
Porthgwidden Beach, dubbed The Tower. Here he became something of a tourist
attraction, carving stone outside, stripped to the waist. Among commissions, he
illustrated Peggy Pollard's book Cornwall and
also exhibited in 1946 at the Lefevre Gallery in London among others. His
friendship with writer Denys
Val Baker led to numerous contributions to and illustrations of his
work in the literary magazine Cornish Review.
Exhibiting
paintings, drawings and sculpture regularly with the St. Ives Society of
Artists and in London, Berlin was a founding member of the Crypt Group of
modern-minded young artists, along with Peter
Lanyon, John Wells and Bryan
Wynter, and of the Penwith Society of Arts for
a short time, before leaving the group following a much-publicised rift between
the Modernists, led by Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth on one side and the
more representational artists on the other. This artistic clash of egos was the
inspiration for The Dark Monarch. Berlin's increasing isolation
after he was forced to leave his studio, when the council decided to build new
conveniences on the site, led to the Berlins' departure for the New Forest in
1953 after their marriage and the birth of their son, Jasper.
Berlin
and Juanita settled in the New
Forest in Hampshire and lived alongside the gypsies, where he famously
recorded, in oil paintings and drawings, the last days of the community in
Shave Green, a body of work which was exhibited in 2003 at St Barbe Museum & Art Gallery in
Lymington and at the retrospective of his work, Out of the Shadows at
Penlee House, Penzance in 2012. Once settled in Home Farm in Emery Down in
1958, he was able to work from a studio and workshop, while Juanita, an
accomplished horsewoman, set up a stud farm. He completed his 7.5-ton Carrara
marble bas-relief The White Buck in 1958; this was saved from
demolition in 2015. Berlin was able to paint, carve, cast bronze in his own
foundry and write, exhibiting at shows including in London at Arthur Tooth and
Son, and appearing on television and in newspapers. I Am Lazarus (1961),
based on his war experiences, and The Dark Monarch (1962) were
published. On the latter's publication, four St. Ives residents portrayed in it
(none of them artists, although they included the poet and writer Arthur
Caddick) began actions for libel.[4][1]
Berlin
was also fascinated by the Romany culture and wildlife of the New Forest,
realised in a series of mystical and philosophical stories Jonah's
Dream: A Meditation on Fishing and the story of his journey from St.
Ives to the New Forest in a gypsy wagon, Dromengro, Man of the Road.[5] His marriage to
Juanita, a talented writer, poet and artist in her own right, ended in divorce,
after she eloped with Fergus Casey, their groom.
Berlin met his third wife, Julia, 33 years his junior, and
moved to the Isle of Wight in 1970, before finally settling near Wimborne in 1975. He remained prolific in painting,
writing and sculpture until his death at the age of 88.” (Wikipedia).
Commonly,
a series of 14 images will be arranged in numbered order along a path, along
which worshippers—individually or in a procession—move in order, stopping at
each station to say prayers and engage in reflections associated with that
station. These devotions are most common during Lent, especially on Good Friday, and reflect a spirit
of reparation for the sufferings and insults that Jesus endured during
his passion.[7][8][9] As a physical
devotion involving standing, kneeling and genuflections, the Stations of the
Cross are tied with the Christian themes of repentance and mortification
of the flesh.[1][10]