South Yorkshire’s late great children’s book author and illustrator Brian Wildsmith is being celebrated in his home town with not one but two free exhibitions as Barnsley braces itself for visitors county wide and beyond.
Paws, Claws, Tales & Roars: The Art of Brian Wildsmith is at Cooper Gallery while Coming Home: The Life of Brian Wildsmith will be at Experience Barnsley Museum, inside the nearby Town Hall. Both run from Saturday, April 20, 2024, to January 4, 2025.
The Barnsley Museums displays are awash with the vibrant palette and limitless imagination that define Brian's beloved books, including his ABC, The Owl and the Woodpecker, Jungle Party, and many more.
Join Graham Walker as he chats to Brian's daugther, Clare and son, Simon, who give us an exclusive guided tour and reveal fascinating stories behind their father's artwork.
For more visit https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/whats-on/yorkshire-goes-wild-celebrating-its-world-famous-childrens-book-illustrator-and-author-brian-wildsmith-4595359
Paws, Claws, Tales & Roars: The Art of Brian Wildsmith is at Cooper Gallery while Coming Home: The Life of Brian Wildsmith will be at Experience Barnsley Museum, inside the nearby Town Hall. Both run from Saturday, April 20, 2024, to January 4, 2025.
The Barnsley Museums displays are awash with the vibrant palette and limitless imagination that define Brian's beloved books, including his ABC, The Owl and the Woodpecker, Jungle Party, and many more.
Join Graham Walker as he chats to Brian's daugther, Clare and son, Simon, who give us an exclusive guided tour and reveal fascinating stories behind their father's artwork.
For more visit https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/whats-on/yorkshire-goes-wild-celebrating-its-world-famous-childrens-book-illustrator-and-author-brian-wildsmith-4595359
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CreativityTranscript
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01:26 - Hello folks, good morning, it's a sunny morning
01:35 and welcome here to the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley
01:39 where we've got something very, very special for you today.
01:43 A brand new exhibition, one of two,
01:45 that's gonna be taking place here in Barnsley,
01:48 thanks to Barnsley Museum Services.
01:51 Celebrating the life of the world famous
01:54 children's book author and illustrator, Brian Wildsmith,
01:58 one of Barnsley's most famous sons.
02:02 And I'm just so delighted to say
02:04 that I've got both Brian's daughter, Claire.
02:07 Hi, Claire. - Hi.
02:09 - And we've also got Simon.
02:10 Hi, Simon. - Hello, Graham.
02:11 Nice to meet you.
02:12 - Thank you, lovely to meet you too.
02:14 And thank you for bringing this fantastic exhibition
02:17 as a world premier here to Barnsley.
02:21 Now, we've got two exhibitions, they're both free,
02:23 they're both open on Saturday.
02:26 The one that we're at present is called
02:28 "Paws, Claws, Tails and Roses",
02:30 we can see behind us there,
02:31 the art of Brian Wildsmith.
02:33 And we're gonna be taking you on a first look,
02:35 a bit of a sneak peek.
02:37 And then over the road at Barnsley Town Hall,
02:42 running in conjunction with this,
02:43 we've got the life of Brian Wildsmith
02:46 and that's gonna be a lot of private, personal collection.
02:50 - In fact, a lot of this, Claire,
02:51 has never been seen by the public, has it?
02:54 - Exactly, you're very right.
02:56 And we're extremely proud to be here
02:59 and we are very, very thankful,
03:00 especially to Barnsley Museums for inviting us to come.
03:04 This whole exhibition has been,
03:07 we've been preparing it for almost five years.
03:11 We live abroad, so it hasn't been that easy,
03:13 but we've communicated through email and Visio,
03:17 and we've talked over the phone
03:20 and it seems as if it's been a long time,
03:23 but now we're here and it's brilliant.
03:26 - Excellent.
03:26 Simon, can you just tell us as well,
03:30 before we get started, just a little bit about your dad,
03:34 just to remind people about the amazing world fame
03:37 that he brought to Barnsley as well.
03:40 - Well, he was born in Barnsley, indeed,
03:42 in Pennystone, to be precise.
03:44 He was the son of a miner
03:46 and he discovered at the age of 16,
03:49 one day having trained thus far as a scientist,
03:52 that he definitely wanted to be a creator, overnight,
03:55 and left school and managed to enrol
03:59 in Barnsley Art College,
04:01 where his talents were spotted pretty early.
04:04 He then graduated on from there,
04:08 he got a scholarship to the Slade in London to be a painter,
04:11 and he was through extremely hard work.
04:15 He would spend his lunch times at the National Gallery
04:18 drawing and drawing, as he would here,
04:21 go to Wentworth Woodhouse,
04:22 where he actually met my mother,
04:23 doing drawing there of the sculptures
04:26 and the paintings in their collection.
04:29 He got through the Slade
04:30 and then he was a jobbing illustrator
04:32 because he realised he could make a living that way,
04:34 which was very important to him,
04:35 making a living to look after his growing family.
04:38 There were four of us, last one being me, born in '65.
04:42 Then eventually, through Oxford University Press,
04:44 his lifelong publisher that published all of his books,
04:48 he got the job of doing a first colour book.
04:53 Publishing was very different in those days,
04:55 colour was expensive to reproduce.
04:57 He illustrated the tales of the Arabian Nights,
05:01 and then that was such a success in terms of its artistry
05:03 that they gave him his very first book to do,
05:05 which was his ABC.
05:07 For that book, he got the Kate Greenaway Medal,
05:09 which is the most prestigious award
05:11 you can get for a children's book,
05:13 and we have several illustrations in the exhibition
05:15 from that book, which he did in 1962.
05:18 - I'm just going to stop you at that point
05:22 because we've got some wonderful footage
05:24 of the exhibition up at Barnsley Town Hall.
05:28 In fact, if we can run that,
05:30 this illustrates a lot of what you've been talking about.
05:34 Now, the ABC book, that was the one
05:36 that really kind of exploded in, didn't it?
05:38 - Definitely, because it was a new approach.
05:41 People were quite, some people were quite shocked by it
05:44 because it was very painterly,
05:47 and it had such vibrant colours in it,
05:51 and it was something new,
05:53 and from what I understand from research,
05:56 it changed the view on children's picture books.
06:01 - And his illustrations as well, Simon,
06:04 I just want to ask you about this.
06:06 This is also celebrating some new fabrics
06:08 that have been brought out
06:09 that are on display up at the Town Hall.
06:11 - We're extremely honoured that Liberty Fabrics,
06:14 the famous Liberty brand from London,
06:17 have created a collection of 12 different designs
06:22 based on Brian's artwork,
06:23 which has been released very recently,
06:26 and it's an absolutely wonderful collection
06:29 on pure organic tarna lawn.
06:32 They're stunning.
06:34 We have a number of those fabrics in the exhibition.
06:36 - You've also produced some special artwork.
06:38 I mean, you're a designer, artist yourself.
06:40 I mean, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?
06:44 So there's some special keepsakes to be bought,
06:47 and also the books as well.
06:48 - There's a lot of merchandise
06:50 that's been created specifically for the exhibition.
06:53 Being a world first, there's a bunch of prints and cards
06:56 and tote bags and all sorts of lovely things
06:58 that I've designed using my dad's artwork.
07:02 We used to work together on a whole bunch of projects
07:04 while he was alive,
07:05 and because I'm into computers and he wasn't,
07:09 and I've continued that through to this exhibition,
07:12 and there's a whole lot of stuff
07:13 to come and see here at the shop.
07:15 - All right, well, listen, before we go any further,
07:17 'cause I know people are aching
07:18 to have a first look at this exhibition
07:20 at the Cooper Gallery,
07:21 let's have a bit of a walk around.
07:23 So if you want to kind of talk me through a little bit
07:26 what we're looking at,
07:27 I mean, I just want to make a point
07:28 of the massive elephant behind you there, Simon.
07:31 If you can just come over here to me, that'd be great.
07:35 - He looks as though he's gonna walk out
07:37 and stamp on our own feet, doesn't he?
07:39 - I mean, he's fantastic.
07:40 - And the actual artwork itself
07:42 is on show just around the corner, isn't it?
07:44 But this is one of the large porcelain images.
07:46 - That's right.
07:48 This is from a book that was called "Jungle Party"
07:51 that came about from a story
07:52 that I could perhaps tell you
07:53 when we're looking at the original illustrations.
07:56 And it's a perfect example of his mastery of drawing
08:01 and proportion and what have you
08:02 that he achieved not just through talent, but by hard work,
08:05 and the much more abstracted work
08:07 of this wash of color over the Python.
08:10 He was a free artist, his whole life.
08:13 He was determined, he did well,
08:15 and therefore his publisher allowed him to be utterly free.
08:19 And he just spent his entire career, 60 years, 85 books,
08:23 he created 85 books that were his pure inventions,
08:28 his little, some of his children he used to call them.
08:30 - If we can stand over this way as well,
08:32 just before we go past this piece,
08:33 if you can come over here, Simon.
08:35 This is a hero kind of image, isn't it?
08:38 This is the one that's been used
08:39 to promote the entire exhibitions.
08:42 - Yes, because of the gaze of the owls is so intense.
08:46 And that is in fact from a book called "Birds,"
08:50 which came a little later than his first book,
08:53 which was the ABC that we talked about earlier,
08:56 for which he got the Kate Greer medal.
08:58 This came a few years later, and it's such a strong image.
09:02 We adore it, everybody else adores it.
09:05 And so we thought we'd definitely chose that
09:06 as the lead image because of its strength and beauty.
09:10 - Brilliant.
09:11 Well, and is that featuring in the brand new book
09:14 that's out as well?
09:15 'Cause there's a collection, isn't there,
09:16 of all his work that's available here as well
09:19 at the museums.
09:21 - Well, this actually, originally there was a book
09:25 about birds, there was one about fishes,
09:27 and there was one about wild animals.
09:29 These were very, we call them his iconic books.
09:33 In about 2010, they made, OUP, his publisher,
09:38 they made a book called "Animal Gallery,"
09:40 which was a compile of the three books.
09:42 And then OUP once again this year decided to bring out
09:47 another book called "Paws, Claws, Tails and Roars,"
09:51 which is the biggest, it's the correct compilation
09:54 of the original three books. - This is the latest.
09:56 - The latest book, and it's for sale here.
10:00 And the title of the exhibition, what they did is,
10:02 it is a twist, it's "Paws, Claws," they kept as in the book.
10:07 And instead of putting tails like the tail of an animal,
10:10 they wrote the tail as a story,
10:12 because this whole exhibition tells lots of stories.
10:15 - Let's move around and just get a scale of this.
10:18 I mean, this is a big space wheel, isn't it?
10:20 But you filled it, I mean, and I bet you could fill it
10:22 five times over.
10:23 - We could easily fill it five times over.
10:25 - So let's just have a look.
10:26 Animals and nature, this is the first,
10:28 and this is gonna appeal to, I mean,
10:30 there's gonna be many primary school kids
10:33 who've not seen this artwork in book form,
10:35 but it's a little bit different actually seeing it live,
10:38 isn't it, actually going up and seeing the print itself.
10:41 - However good reproduction is in books,
10:44 it's never, can never be as good as the original.
10:48 So yeah, if you see, looking at these paintings,
10:50 you get a real insight into the way Brian worked,
10:54 the concentration he had mainly on the image,
10:56 which is primordial.
11:00 When you look at this piece in particular here,
11:02 you can see that he didn't care two hoots
11:04 about how he cut the paper up and stuck two bits together.
11:08 It's all kind of pretty random.
11:10 There's not a set square.
11:11 He didn't use a set square any time,
11:14 I think in his entire career,
11:15 when it came to cutting paper and what have you.
11:17 He just got a sheet out and he started painting.
11:19 - And if we look over here, the elephant,
11:21 this is the elephant that features on the big poster
11:24 at the front, isn't it, of the building,
11:26 with the python.
11:27 I think there's a bit of a story behind that, isn't there?
11:29 - There is, there is.
11:30 He was out in his garden in the South of France,
11:34 tending his tomatoes, so he tells us,
11:37 and he stepped on an adder and he was bitten on his ankle.
11:41 And as you can imagine, that was extremely painful for him.
11:44 And it struck an idea.
11:47 I think he got his revenge through writing this book
11:49 about a snake that gets into all sorts of adventures.
11:54 Yeah.
11:55 - He saw himself as the elephant, did he?
11:57 - He's the elephant, yeah.
11:58 - He's getting his own back.
11:59 - The elephant in the room.
12:00 All right, and then we come down, obviously,
12:03 every picture's worth telling a story, isn't it?
12:05 - Of course.
12:06 I mean, you know, all of his artwork is about,
12:09 it's about what is the most,
12:11 what's most beautiful in our world,
12:13 in people, in animals, in plants, in architecture.
12:18 He was obsessed with beauty and was a very optimistic man.
12:23 And this particular story,
12:25 this book is called "Hunter and His Dog",
12:28 and there too, there's a story
12:29 in that our own dog had a brain tumor.
12:32 And every day, the neighbor's dog, this huge Airedale,
12:35 our dog was a tiny little Dachshund,
12:37 this Airedale that would never frequent our dog,
12:40 Vanique, he was called,
12:41 would come over every day and lick our dog's head
12:44 for an hour or two every day,
12:46 and then go back to his home.
12:48 And my dad was extremely touched by this
12:51 and wrote "Hunter and His Dog",
12:53 which is a book about compassion,
12:54 where a dog teaches his hunter master
12:57 about compassion and how to look after the animals
13:01 that he would normally hunt and treat them with kindness.
13:07 It's a parody for compassion in human life.
13:12 He used animals as a way of telling stories.
13:15 - Claire, if we move on down here then,
13:16 we've come to the imagination section.
13:18 What can you tell me about this?
13:20 - First of all, I say, that's rather,
13:25 I think that's a very amusing little caterpillar
13:28 with all sorts of different,
13:29 it's actually the end page, I think,
13:31 of a book that's called "Whose Shoes".
13:33 - It's just to remind everybody as well, again,
13:37 that your father was a world famous children's book author.
13:42 We've all read his books and we're all very familiar,
13:47 but he didn't just inspire,
13:49 he actually helped other children, didn't he?
13:51 I mean, he was born in Palestine, he was raised in Ireland.
13:54 He went to West Street School in Ireland,
13:57 I know that because my wife's a primary school teacher there
14:00 and he still used to visit in his life
14:01 and actually help the kids to produce work
14:05 that even got shown in as far away as Japan.
14:07 I mean, it was just amazing.
14:09 - Well, he was very attached to the place where he lived,
14:12 although, you know, in the early '70s,
14:15 Brian left the United Kingdom and took us all to,
14:18 we all lived in France,
14:20 but he talked about Barnsley permanently
14:23 and he used to come back here
14:25 and he was attached to the community here
14:28 and especially children.
14:29 He used to, there was a period where he used to go on tour
14:35 to America, to Australia, New Zealand, around the world
14:39 and he would always go to schools, he'd meet librarians,
14:42 he'd meet teachers and he'd talk to children about work
14:46 and his work and he wanted to inspire kids
14:49 to be free in their illustration as well, you know,
14:52 not necessarily-
14:53 - I have no doubt, Simon, his work will continue to inspire.
14:57 - Well, I believe so.
14:59 I think there's something utterly timeless
15:01 about my dad's work and yeah, I mean,
15:04 what Claire was saying is absolutely right.
15:06 He was very keen that, he knew the importance of education,
15:11 which he was lucky to get.
15:12 He had some amazing parents because back in those days,
15:15 kids of minors didn't become artists
15:17 and he had very, very encouraging parents
15:20 and he believed that through education
15:22 and through hard work, you could possibly,
15:25 it's not always the case
15:27 because there are other factors in life,
15:28 but that through those things,
15:29 if you are determined in life,
15:31 you can get what you want or a portion of it.
15:34 So his books were very much about bringing visual literacy,
15:37 as he called it, to children.
15:38 - Very colorful as well, weren't they?
15:40 I mean, as we look at some of the explosions
15:42 of color behind you, there's a particular space,
15:46 a picture of a reclaim, if we can just-
15:48 - Yeah, I'd just like to, sorry to interrupt,
15:50 but I'd just like to say one thing
15:51 because Barnsley Museums have picked up on this idea of,
15:54 you know, for the future generations
15:55 and they've actually just had a competition,
15:58 an art competition for the schools.
16:01 I think they're mainly local schools
16:03 and that art competition,
16:05 the illustrations that have been already judged
16:08 are for view in the Sadler Room.
16:10 - Which is upstairs here.
16:11 - Which is upstairs.
16:11 - Oh, that's fabulous.
16:12 - And we're going to give the prizes
16:14 to the children this afternoon before the private view.
16:17 - And there's also gonna be lots of workshops as well.
16:20 - Lots of workshops.
16:21 - Lots of workshops.
16:22 There were 300 submissions to this competition.
16:24 - I think if people want any information for that,
16:26 we can put them up on the screen.
16:28 We've got website addresses
16:29 for the Cooper Experience Barnsley
16:31 and the social media posts.
16:34 So people follow that,
16:35 they'll get all the information that they need.
16:36 - Yeah, and there are lots and lots of things
16:38 that the team here have organized for children
16:40 to do throughout the summer.
16:42 And workshops and activities.
16:44 There's a wonderful Wildsmith Woodland upstairs.
16:47 I don't know whether you'll have time to,
16:48 but if I was a kid,
16:50 I'd love to go up there and sit down and start drawing.
16:51 - I know it sounds a bit of a cliche,
16:53 but Barnsley in Yorkshire really is going wild
16:55 for Brian Wildsmith.
16:56 - Oh, that's...
16:57 - You know, it's just amazing.
16:58 Let's just look at some of these colorful paintings,
17:00 if we can get some of these on screen.
17:03 The space picture there, Claire, that looks amazing.
17:08 I know it's something that we've been using
17:10 in some of the publicity.
17:11 What's the story behind that?
17:13 - Well, it's from a book
17:14 that's called "The Amazing World of Words,"
17:16 which is, it was sort of like a picture dictionary in a way.
17:19 So, and these are the images, in fact,
17:22 that Liberty were very moved by
17:24 because they used a lot of them
17:26 to make their capsule fabric collection.
17:28 - The fabrics, yeah.
17:29 - There are another two.
17:31 It's sort of like, you know, theatrical, a scene.
17:35 - Yes.
17:35 - You know, that was obviously, I believe,
17:37 inspired by the Natural History Museum in London.
17:42 That way, you know,
17:43 and I mean, if you look at the draftsmanship,
17:44 look at those.
17:45 - Yeah, it's amazing.
17:46 - All those diners.
17:48 Then costumes.
17:49 There are a few other illustrations from that book.
17:52 - Yeah, again, in terms of draftsmanship,
17:54 we see that on Shoaib as well.
17:57 - Well, yeah, that one, I think, shows
17:59 he was very interested in maths and formulas.
18:02 And if you'd, it's a little bit washed.
18:05 It's a bit, not washed, it's faded.
18:08 But if you look at carefully,
18:09 there are all sorts of mathematical equations in there.
18:12 - And there's lots of personal information as well.
18:14 Look, there's Simon, Claire, Anna, Rebecca,
18:17 Porsche, which he was obviously dreaming of at the time.
18:20 Although, and OUP, obviously, University Press,
18:23 Mercedes 280 SE, that was his car.
18:26 And yeah, he was, in his earlier life,
18:28 he wanted to be a mathematician or a chemist.
18:31 And he believed that, like many great mathematicians do also,
18:37 that there is art in maths.
18:40 And, you know, engineering can be, in many ways,
18:44 is extremely artistic.
18:45 When you look at a beautiful functional bridge,
18:47 it's a piece of art.
18:49 You look at a fabulous Bentley engine from the '60s,
18:52 it's a piece of art.
18:54 It's all the same thing, creation.
18:56 - An helicopter.
18:57 - A helicopter.
18:58 - I suppose if we--
18:58 - With all our initials and all our ages
19:00 at the time you did the book.
19:01 - Oh, yeah, it's fascinating, yeah.
19:02 - Yeah, so, Orheily would have been 48,
19:05 Brian, 51, et cetera, et cetera.
19:07 - But I suppose we're looking at the maths side of it,
19:09 then we come over to the words
19:11 and the literature side of it all as well,
19:13 which again, in terms of the books,
19:15 was a key part of his career, wasn't it?
19:18 - It was.
19:19 - These ones here are from, sorry.
19:20 - Sorry, let's just go over.
19:21 - These are from the,
19:22 as the owls is from a book called "Birds,"
19:25 that one is also "Birds," so is that.
19:28 And that's from the book "Fishers,"
19:30 so, you know, that's relating back to the three books
19:33 that I talked about earlier in the '60s.
19:35 - Yeah.
19:36 - This one is called, this is more religious-based,
19:42 but I think we could say that although,
19:46 Brian did quite a few books
19:48 that had religious themes to them,
19:49 but he did them because he believed that, you know,
19:52 religion is part of our culture,
19:55 and whether you are religious or not,
19:57 there's stories that are part of our history.
19:59 - Well, I must admit, like I say,
20:01 my wife being a primary school teacher,
20:03 we've always got his Christmas books
20:05 and his Easter books there every year.
20:07 They come out, but they tell the story
20:09 in his own unique way as well, don't they, you know?
20:11 It's not a recount of what's written
20:13 in the Testament or the Bible.
20:14 - It's fabulous.
20:15 - Exactly.
20:16 - It's fabulous.
20:16 I'd really urge anybody who's not read them to have a look.
20:19 If we ever just look around the corners,
20:20 well, this exhibition just keeps going on, doesn't it?
20:23 And give me, so let's just have a look around here.
20:26 So this is "Making and Creativity."
20:29 So, Simon, if you just come over here to me,
20:31 what can you tell me about,
20:33 what can you tell me about this?
20:36 - What can I tell you about this?
20:37 Well, I think, you know, it's just a continuation
20:40 of, you know, his immense and immeasurable imagination
20:45 and fantastic use of paint, mark-making, draftsmanship.
20:50 If you look at this fabulous situation,
20:54 I mean, there's no real perspective to it,
20:57 but it just functions.
20:58 He had this kind of gift to do very, quite abstract images
21:02 that were actually very understandable
21:04 and worked brilliantly.
21:05 This is one we love particularly.
21:08 All of these pictures are ones he kept
21:10 for one reason or another.
21:11 So they're all from his,
21:12 everything being shown at Barnsley at this exhibition
21:16 must have meant something to Brian because he kept them.
21:18 So that's why they're here also.
21:20 - Claire, you wanted to draw attention to the woodpecker.
21:22 What's the story?
21:23 - I think there used to be a woodpecker
21:27 that pecked away at some tree,
21:30 but I find that absolutely fantastic to think,
21:33 have you ever seen it?
21:33 I've never seen a tree trunk that color, but it works.
21:37 I mean, that picture is from the early seventies.
21:41 You know, that's 50 years, 60 years ago.
21:46 It's looks so modern today.
21:48 - It's vibrant today, isn't it?
21:49 - I mean, I think everything looks very modern
21:52 in temporal his work was, I think.
21:54 - It was the first book he made
21:56 when we moved to France in 1971.
21:59 And yes, opposite his studio, there was a wood.
22:01 And in that wood, there was a woodpecker
22:04 that pecked incessantly
22:06 and not always at convenient times.
22:08 And it set off this idea.
22:10 Ideas, stories come from our lives,
22:12 our experiences, et cetera, don't they?
22:14 So, and a small little idea like that
22:16 can be transformed into a book.
22:18 And that's what's happening here.
22:19 - I like his mix as well.
22:20 We see the African jungle, big cats, elephants,
22:23 and the rest, but we also see the likes of the foxes
22:26 and the animals that we, the woodpeckers
22:28 and the things that we associate at home.
22:30 Did he ever get to Africa
22:33 or was it all about studying from afar?
22:37 - He did, later in life, he went as far as Morocco.
22:41 But no, he mainly traveled in Europe
22:44 and he's traveled a lot.
22:45 He's traveled all over the world,
22:47 but he moved to the South of France for a lot of reasons.
22:49 One of which was that the closeness of Italy.
22:52 And he hadn't had the opportunity we had as children
22:55 to see all this wonderful art,
22:57 which he wanted us to have.
22:59 He wanted us to have the opportunities that he didn't get,
23:01 but he used to go to Italy with us or without us
23:03 and to Spain very regularly to all the great museums,
23:07 all the great basilicas and churches.
23:08 - Is that a little bit of a segue
23:09 to the art and architecture over here as well?
23:11 - It could well be, it could well be.
23:13 - Because we've got illustration here, haven't we,
23:16 of far from places.
23:19 - Yeah.
23:19 - Also go to the middle, he went to Israel.
23:22 - Yeah.
23:23 Before he made these books, yeah,
23:25 he spent some time in Israel,
23:29 invited by the consulate there to do the research
23:32 for a trilogy of books.
23:35 And these are from Exodus.
23:38 And they are a stunning,
23:40 after he went through a very,
23:42 should we say very free manner of expression,
23:45 in his later life, he became paradoxically,
23:48 because his eyesight can't have been quite as good
23:52 as when he was younger,
23:53 he started doing these incredibly intricate illustrations
23:58 with enormous amounts of drawing and line and--
24:03 - This is where craftsmanship came into play,
24:08 didn't it, as well?
24:08 - Yeah, he was an amazing draughtsman,
24:10 there's no doubt about it.
24:11 - And then we've got some of the other--
24:12 - Look at these people here.
24:13 I mean, they're absolutely stunning, aren't they?
24:16 The snake that becomes a stick.
24:18 - And then next to them,
24:20 we've got some of the other religious aspects
24:24 from some of his famous books as well.
24:27 He'd take a classic Renaissance kind of theme
24:31 and put a cat on the Virgin Mary's lap
24:33 and a dog at her feet,
24:35 because he knew that that would talk to children.
24:39 And that's another favorite of mine.
24:40 I love the floor, the beautiful mosaic floor.
24:44 - And as we've said, a lot of people were familiar
24:47 with the paper, but they'd never seen these,
24:50 the actual originals in situ before.
24:52 Now, I think Barnsley obviously had been saying to me
24:55 that he'd lost his life as one of their sons
24:58 and to have this exhibition,
24:59 which they've worked with you to put it on,
25:02 but it would be a shame if it never went further afield.
25:05 Are the plans for this maybe,
25:07 could this be regarded as a world premiere?
25:10 - Oh, it's absolutely a world premiere.
25:12 There's 99% of the pictures in the two exhibitions
25:16 have never been seen in public before.
25:18 And there are some big posters over at Experience Barnsley,
25:21 for instance, that have never been seen.
25:22 There's tons of his very early illustrations
25:25 that he was doing when he was a jobbing illustrator.
25:27 And to answer the other question about it,
25:29 touring, we are very hopeful
25:31 that some museum will pick up on it
25:33 because it is an extraordinary collection
25:36 and it's extremely beautiful in our opinion.
25:41 And we think it deserves to be seen
25:42 by as many people as possible.
25:43 - Yeah, yeah.
25:44 Well, listen, it's been an absolute fascinating look
25:47 around there.
25:48 I just, again, just want to remind people
25:52 what's happening here.
25:53 And I can't think of anybody better to tell us that
25:57 than yourself.
25:57 So, Simon, can you first of all tell us
26:01 what's happening over at Experience Barnsley?
26:03 - Experience Barnsley,
26:05 there's a lot of his illustration there.
26:07 There's a lot of colour.
26:08 There's also a lot of personal family memorabilia.
26:11 So there's the story about how he met my mother
26:13 at Wentworth Woodhouse, illustrated with photographs.
26:15 There's pictures of him as the cricket captain.
26:18 He was a great cricket player.
26:18 - You've got to tell people the story as well.
26:21 Was it your granddad that was the cook
26:26 at Wentworth Woodhouse?
26:28 - You tell them, Claire.
26:29 - Our grandfather was, he was French.
26:31 He was the chef at Wentworth Woodhouse.
26:34 And the story is that Brian lived in Barnsley.
26:39 He asked, he asked, went,
26:41 he knew that there were statues there.
26:43 He asked permission to go and sketch them.
26:45 And he, when he went over to sketch them,
26:48 he met this 14 year old girl who happened to be our mother.
26:52 They fell in love.
26:54 So my mother, my mother was 14, no,
26:56 they were 14 and he was 17.
26:59 And that's the story of how our parents met.
27:01 - Wow.
27:03 - And so there's a sort of, how could you call it?
27:08 You know, we've come back to where, full circle.
27:11 We've come back, we've brought Brian's work back to Barnsley
27:15 which is where a lot of things originated, us included,
27:18 because if they'd never met, we wouldn't be here either.
27:21 - So listen, this opens on Saturday to the general public.
27:24 - Yes.
27:25 - Just remind me again, it's Experience Barnsley and Cooper.
27:28 What do people see different at the Wentworth exhibition?
27:31 - I think that the main difference is that
27:33 the Experience Barnsley exhibition
27:35 is perhaps a little more personal.
27:37 It's more about Brian and his personal life
27:39 and his travels and his family,
27:43 illustrated with illustrations again.
27:45 And photographs, whereas here it's just colour,
27:49 a splash, a huge splash of colour on every wall.
27:52 It's less of a story, it's more about the art.
27:55 Experience Barnsley is about the manner.
27:57 - You said we're learning to find out about the manner.
27:59 And one of the fascinating things
28:00 you were showing me yesterday,
28:01 in fact, I think we've got an image of it.
28:03 There were two sketches that he did.
28:05 And I think one of his first jobs
28:07 was working for the Barnsley Chronicle,
28:09 not as a photographer, but as a sketch artist
28:12 because you've got to remember at the time,
28:13 that was probably more familiar form of media.
28:16 And that's even on display.
28:18 You've not missed a trick, have you?
28:20 - Nobody's seen those.
28:21 He used to go to the men's working clubs
28:23 and he used to do portraits.
28:26 And we've got two of them that are up for view.
28:30 And it gives the names of the two people who were there.
28:33 I mean, I don't know them myself,
28:35 what they did and where they lived.
28:36 So maybe somebody from the public
28:38 might even be a member of that family, a descendant.
28:41 - Wouldn't that be amazing if we could track those people
28:43 while the family's down?
28:44 - One is called Mrs. Crouch.
28:46 - Yep, Mrs. Crouch is there.
28:48 - Mrs. Crouch, if you're listening,
28:49 we want you to get in touch with her.
28:50 Talking about probably your grandma or something like that.
28:54 But yeah, it would be fabulous.
28:56 So I guess there might be another book in all this one,
28:59 the pulling all the collection together.
29:02 - A book?
29:03 - Yeah.
29:04 - Kind of like a catalog.
29:05 - Not yet, not yet.
29:06 It's something I very much wanted to do,
29:09 but time hasn't allowed it.
29:10 But it's certainly in the pipeline.
29:12 - Well, listen, we've got the real thing,
29:14 we've got it here.
29:15 Thank you ever so much and thank you for your time.
29:17 This don't run until it's been extended, hasn't it?
29:20 It's now until January the 4th.
29:23 - It's been extended from September
29:24 to the 4th of January.
29:25 So it's on for nine months, but don't wait that long.
29:28 - No, it'll probably get extended again
29:30 because it's going to be that popular, isn't it?
29:32 - Yeah, three to four.
29:33 - But listen, thank you ever so much for your time.
29:35 I think just to end the live stream,
29:37 we've got some more highlights
29:39 of what we've just been talking about.
29:41 So let's play that.
29:42 But Simon, Claire, thank you for your time.
29:44 - Thank you.
29:45 It's been a pleasure.
29:46 - Thank you.
29:46 - Thank you very much and to the team.
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