To continue the theme of disappearing 20th century social art, see also Vanishing Visions of Utopia, in the last few years I have worked on three covered-over post-war British paintings. All were painted in the spirit of the Festival of Britain and the new, hopeful, post-war world, and all covered over in the 1970s; by which time the styles and themes no doubt seemed dated and no longer suited to the public mood.
In all these cases, after a considerable quantity of work and determination from individuals who knew of their existence and significance, these paintings were able to be reinstated. Conservators were brought on board, funds were raised, conservation methods and approaches were investigated, and full programmes of restoration were drawn up. This allowed the paintings to be uncovered, conserved and reinstated – and displayed as originally designed, nearly forty years after the covering over.
Below are some photographs of the uncovering of two of the paintings, by artist Fred Millet. They are located in St Crispin’s school, Wokingham, the first of the Ministry of Education’s prototype prefabricated schools in Britain, built directly post-war, at a time when including art and design within schools was considered central to planning. The paintings uncovered, and illustrated below, represent summer and autumn, and were originally part of a scheme showing the four seasons. I worked on this project for the Perry Lithgow Partnership, who had had a long term involvement with the whole programme from the start to uncover and reinstate the paintings.
Below are some photographs of the uncovering of two of the paintings, by artist Fred Millet. They are located in St Crispin’s school, Wokingham, the first of the Ministry of Education’s prototype prefabricated schools in Britain, built directly post-war, at a time when including art and design within schools was considered central to planning. The paintings uncovered, and illustrated below, represent summer and autumn, and were originally part of a scheme showing the four seasons. I worked on this project for the Perry Lithgow Partnership, who had had a long term involvement with the whole programme from the start to uncover and reinstate the paintings.
Below is a brief news film about the conservation of these two paintings, it also includes footage from two timelapse videos of the uncovering process.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-20245754
My blog here:
Reinstating a 1940s Wall Painting
and here:
Award Win For Lost Wall Paintings
discusses in more detail the conservation of the third of these post-war painted schemes.