Gallery II
Cyril Mount | RUFFLING FEATHERS
curated by Alison Darnbrough
One visitor said: 'Too amazing for words. The power is exceptional' - view more comments from our visitor book
4 - 25 March 2011 | Gallery II
Exhibition Launch Thursday 3 March, 5 - 7pm
This exhibition brings together a collection of work highlighting the futility of war and the machinations of power, donated to the Department of Peace Studies at the University in July last year by artist Cyril Mount.
'Cyril is a true peace activist: unrelenting in his commitment; powerful in expression; and often mischievous in action. We are honoured and delighted that Cyril has chosen to donate this body of work over many years to the University.' (Davina Miller, Head of Peace Studies)
Cyril Mount (b. Liverpool 1920) was in India with the Royal Horse Artillery at 17. At the outbreak of war his Regiment mechanised and left for the Middle East and North Africa in March 1941. He spent the early war years in action as Wireless Operator, as well as drawing panoramas of enemy positions and other things. In North Africa he fought with the 4th Indian Division in all campaigns to Tunis. In July 1943 he was involved in the invasion of Sicily and later wounded and evacuated back to Tunisia. Following convalescence he was recommended for commission. He successfully completed six months officer cadet training in Almaza, Cairo and left for UK in April 1944 as a full Lieutenant. He had made many drawings and gouache paintings in lulls between fighting and thirty nine of these are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum. Post war he became an art student for four years full time and then went on to teaching, mainly in Higher Education, for the next thirty four years becoming a Principal Lecturer and a FRSA.
As a student in Liverpool, Mount was attracted to painters such as Breugel, Goya, Hogarth, Daumier and Picasso. They still have a place in his oeuvre after much more than half a century, not surprising then that his work had mostly been concerned with people. His painting became gradually more political and even his most innocent pictures of bathers can have as much hidden cynicism as his more overt blasts against the hypocrisy, cruelty and injustice of the 'systems' in the present world.
He was greatly affected by Goya's Horrors of War drawings which have fed into his art of the past decade or so. Mount comments: 'The very act of drawing and painting still carries with it a strange but very real sort of magic. My feeling is that those of us blessed with this ability , should when necessary, use it to draw attention to the cruelty, injustices, horror and futility of war and ruffle the feathers of those responsible for corrupt capitalism and religions. In my case I don't feel I deserve the title of peace activist, just the reformed enemy who saw and experienced far more than he bargained for when he ran away from the 1930s depression and joined the regular Army!'
Mount has done his fair share of exhibiting, but has never been concerned with the 'fame and fortune' aspects of the 'art game'. His last exhibition of significance was a retrospective of sixty paintings at Worthing Museum & Art Gallery in 1989. The work is shown to coincide with the 5th Annual Peace Jam event and Nobel Peace Laureate Public Lecture. Cyril will be leading a creative workshop as part of the Peace Jam events.
Please see the Peace Jam website for further details:
www.brad.ac.uk/acad/peacejam/
With thanks to Denise Felkin for her work on http://www.cyrilmount.net/bradford.html
Cyril Mount has a studio here: http://www.phoenixarts.org/
