Lesson 22

Whilst as a student at Hornsey College of Art in the late 60s, Jesse Dale Cast was a part-time lecturer. This renowned realist painter who had paintings in the Tate was the same age as I am today, but to a 19 year old he seemed much older. I thought it great to have this age range and broad spectrum of opinion on the teaching staff at Hornsey.

Jesse rhetorically asked me “why is Gainsborough a better painter than Reynolds?” His answer was that Gainsborough played the Viol de Gamba. I play the cello so this made total sense to me if only to bolster my ego; he probably only gave me this anecdote  because he knew I played the cello, but then again, I did get the fresh lyrical and experimental painting of Gainsborough over and against the often dour ‘grand style’ and academic formalities of Reynolds.

On the other hand, it is generally regarded that musicians who try to paint are not particularly good and in some cases, pretty lousy. However, they are a very mixed bunch in both music and art, from Tony Bennett to Paul McCarney or Miles Davis to Bob Dylan..  Also David Bowie, Ronnie Wood, John Mellencamp, Marilyn Manson, Joseph Arthur, Kim Gordon, Ryan Adams, Patti Smith and Joni Mitchell have all had a go at painting. However, Matthew Collings regards Captain Beefheart as the only musician who is of any interest as a painter.

It seems that Matthew Collins has not considered classical musicians and composers; Mendelsson also painted, as did Sir Henry Wood, Gershwin, Schoenberg, the Polish composer Mikalojus Konstanyinas Ciurlionis and Rimsky Korsakov.

Art Schools have produced many musicians and at one time it seemed as if the purpose of British art schools was not to produce art but to produce bands, notably The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Cream, Pulp, The Specials, REM, Threatmantics, Frans Ferdinand or the Klaxons. The list goes on.

Here are a few musicians who are UK art school alumni:

John Mayall Regional College of Art (Manchester), 1955-1959

Charlie Watts Harrow Art School, 1956-1960

John Lennon Liverpool College of Art, 1957-1960

Keith Richards Sidcup Art School, 1959-1962

Jimmy Page Sutton Art College, 1960-1964

John Cale Goldsmiths, 1960-1963

Viv Stanshall Central St Martins, 1961-1962

Ronnie Wood Ealing Art College, 1961-1964

Eric Clapton Kingston Art College, 1961-1962

Pete Townshend Ealing Art College, 1961-1964

Ray Davies Hornsey College of Art, 1962-1963

Syd Barrett Camberwell College of Art, 1964-1966

Bryan Ferry Newcastle College of Art, 1964-1968

Brian Eno Ipswich Art School; Winchester College of Art, 1964-1966; 1966-1969

Malcolm McLaren St Martin’s; Chiswick Polytechnic; Croydon College of Art; Harrow Art College; Goldsmiths College, 1963-1971

Ian Dury Royal College of Art, 1964-1967

Freddie Mercury Ealing College of Art, 1966-1969

Joe Strummer Central St Martins, 1970-1971

Adam Ant Hornsey College of Art, 1972-1975

Jerry Dammers Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry, 1972-1975

Mick Jones Hammersmith School of Art, 1973-1974

Paul Simonon Byam Shaw (London), 1975-1976

Marc Almond Leeds Polytechnic, 1976-1979

Sade Central St Martins, 1977-1980

Billy Childish Central St Martins, 1979-1982

Jarvis Cocker Central St Martins, 1988-1991

Graham Coxon Goldsmiths, 1988-1989

PJ Harvey Yeovil Art College, 1990-1991

Bob Hardy (Franz Ferdinand) Glasgow School of Art, 1999-2002

MIA Central St Martins, 1996-1999

Simon Taylor-Davis (Klaxons) Nottingham Trent University, 2001-2004

Faris Badwan (The Horrors) Central St Martins, 2006

Florence Welch (Florence and the Machine) Camberwell, 2006-2007

Concerning the unconvincing paintings of musicians, the critic John Moore said that “there aren’t any artists who are any good as musicians and there aren’t any pastry chefs who are any good as tightrope walkers“. But all of the above musicians are what one might regard as artists and designers who became musicians whilst at art school, and some have later in life returned to their first love. Maybe artists make the best musicians? To answer John Moore’s proposition, one cannot verify that Gainsborough was also a talented musician. Nor the violin-playing Paul Klee, though Klee hired professional musicians to play with him. I think they both were probably pretty good musicians.

At Coventry in the early 1970s Jerry Dammers and Horace (Gentleman) Panter, who formed The Specials, were students on the Fine Art course. In his third year, I remember at a tutorial asking Horace what he was was going to do when he left. He said that he was going to be a pop star. I said “Fuck off!” Well, he was being humorously provocative and how many students have that ambition? Of course some do make it in music and Horace, who was later to become an art teacher, has returned to his art and doing very well.

The influence of auto-destructive artist Gustav Metzger on Pete Townsend at Ealing College of Art is clear to see in Pete’s early performances, and during the 20th century there was also a tradition of experimental music in art schools, from making sculptures that were also musical instruments though to developing electronic music and sonic installations. In the 1960’s there was Fluxus and experimentation around the cut-up techniques of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin, as applied to recording tape. John Cage was taken seriously in the art schools of the 60’s and 70’s when he was generally ignored, and indeed thought of as something of a joke in the Music Colleges and Conservatories throughout Britain. Gavin Bryers and many other experimental musicians have studied and taught at British art schools; Rolf Gehlhaar, a composer in assistive music technology who worked with Stockhausen in the late 60’s, has recently retired as Professor in Experimental Music at Coventry School of Art. In many cases experimental music was taught in Art Colleges and was not extra-curricula as art school pop music was. This is the other side of coin to the musical popular culture at art schools.