Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tom fairs

Untitled, Tom Fairs, ca. 1970s.

My interest is primarily in things seen: landscape, interiors, still life where, in the light of the imagination, the commonplace may be transformed into the extraordinary. The ever-present transforming principle moves me. I have no theories, no special techniques and no information to communicate. I try to achieve a brief glimpse of the implicit order that lies beneath what we perceive as reality.

-Tom Fairs

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Tom Fairs (1925-2007), Aligny-en-Morvan. Oil on card, 28 5/8 x 21 in. (73.4 x 53.3 cm.)

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Courtesy of the Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection Archive

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Tom Fairs, Stained Glass and Basic Design

The route to including work by Tom Fairs in the Freedom From Within The Frame exhibition is a classic example of how research knows very little confinements. There is a distinct starting point, and from there on out the process becomes exceedingly rhizomatic. The initial basis for the exhibition came in the form of two archival boxes full of material that mainly concerned itself with William Johnstone and Nigel Walters and, as it became clear that the project’s focus would rest on art education and Basic Design, the research had to be expanded in all directions to investigate the Central School and its teachers and students.

The archives at Central Saint Martins are incredibly rich, so it is no surprise that a not-so-small portion of the research was taken up by hours of going through vast amounts of material, and a few boxes with a label saying ‘Tom Fairs’ happened to be part of that. You do not always know what exactly it is you are looking for when you enter an archive, but you do know when you find something good. What eventually made the cut for the window display were a handful of beautiful samples of stained glass; we photographed them to demonstrate the interaction of colour, composition and light and placed these photographs in the window, hanging alongside works by Eduardo Paolozzi, Victor Pasmore, John Drummond and many more.

It is said that fairs began his career as a teacher in 1954, yet the first official record of him can be found in the prospectus for the academic year 1956/57. He was teaching Stained Glass (prior to him John Baker filled this position), which was under the School of Interior Design and Furniture, led by Nigel Walters. The original subject description reads:

All forms of stained glass and glazing are dealt with, the object being to students an insight into all the decorative uses of plain, ornamental & painted work. The instruction includes Cutting & Glazing, Designing & Painting, Firing, Design for Acid Embossing and Sand Blasting. Instruction for Heraldry for designers is also given.

What is characteristic for this period at the Central School is that the constellations of teaching structures changed a fair amount over the years and it is a very interesting endeavour to trace them. In 1958/59, for example, Fairs joined the School of Theatrical Design (Head of the Department was Michael Trangmar) in addition to teaching Stained Glass. Amal Ghosh, a painter from Calcutta who studied Stained Glass under Fairs in the early 1960s, describes Fairs in an oral history recorded in 2011 as ‘an excellent teacher - not just that, he was a superb human being’ with a ‘very war, very nice’ demeanour about him. Ghost, at one point, was staying with Fairs at his home in Sussex, prior to moving to Hampstead, which is a well-known residence of Fairs’, for it resonates with his later paintings. In addition to that, he employed Ghosh to assist him for his own glass work he would take on over summer in order to support Ghosh financially. This kind of supportive relationship between teachers and studetns is something Amal Ghosh emphasises significantly: Morris Kestelman, for instance, similarly offered a lot of moral and financial support, and it was him who invited Ghosh to teach at Central after finishing - a practice that was far from unusual at the time.

The atmosphere Ghosh recalls around Stained Glass is portrayed as very vibrant; teaching took place in an attic, which was ‘absolutely buzzing with people’. He says it was seven to eight students at most - something that is to a certain extent indicative of the space and the activity in it. ‘Aciding’ (that is, acid etching on glass) was performed openly, with very little consideration of what we now would call a health and safety hazard. Another notable aspect Ghosh mentions in this oral history hints at issues around the funding of Stained Glass. The course could not absorb many students since it was ‘very hands-on, craft-based work’ and moreover was very expensive. Throughout Ghosh’s time there, all the material necessary was free: ‘colours, glass...everything was given’. As a little historical detail, this might offer a powerful comparison to art education today. As for Fairs’ involvement with Theatrical Design at the Central School, Ghosh provides a very simple, yet compelling, reason for it: Tom Fairs ‘always loved the theatre’.

In 1962/63, Tom Fairs joined the School of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Etching and Allied Studies under Morris Kestelman, along with some very notable teachers such as Cecil Collins and William Turnbull, whilst still teaching in the School of Theatrical Design under Trangmar, and Stained Glass as part of Walters’ department. As mentioned previously, teaching constellations at Central underwent noteworthy transformations, for example Kestelman’s department absorbed Stained Glass in 1963/64 and changed its name to Deparment of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Etching and Stained Glass. In the same academic year, Fairs stopped teaching in the Department of Theatrical Design. And in 1965/66, the department under Kestelman changed its name once again and was now known as the Department of Fine Art, and Fairs was listed as one of the teachers. The year 1966 furthermore marks a significant turning point in the College’s history: on the first of May, the Central School of Arts and Crafts became the Central School of Art and Design. In the subsequent year’s prospectus (1966/67), Fairs’ role within the Department of Fine Art is explicitly defined for the first time: his name appears under the subcategory Painting, interestingly. Senior lecturer in Painting at the same time was William Brooker.

In a way, what really highlights this notion of sense of re-shuffling at the Central School over the years is Fairs’ rather flexible presence in the different departments. In the same year (1966/67) he re-joined the theatre clique, which was now called the Department of Theatre Design and led by Ralph Koltai, one of Britain’s most celebrated figures in this field. And by 1968/69 Fairs had left the department of Fine Art behind, only to take up a greater responsibility within the Department of Theatre Design - alongside Michael Trangmar, Tom Fairs was appointed Senior Lecturer, a position he held for the rest of his time as a teacher at the Central School.

A letter from Elisabeth Russel Taylor, his wife, that is held in the archive, confirms that Fairs focused mainly on painting after retiring from teaching. However, the sense that his artistic practice had really begun in the heart of retirement can be rather misleading. Just taking the teaching practices at the Central School into account, and Principal William Johnstone’s push towards interdisciplinary practice, were not exactly separate things. Moreover, the previously mentioned recording of Amal Ghosh serves as further evidence of Fairs working on commissions alongside his teaching practice. In fact, he has stained glass in churches and other public buildings throughout England and Scotland, and records propose that he assisted Geoffrey Clarke on windows for the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral.

Further archival material suggests he had nine solo exhibitions (again, both in England and Scotland) and contributed to twelve mixed shows. There is also indication that Fairs used to exhibit annually at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and had done for over 20 years. What is perhaps additionally interesting to note is that Fairs was a member of the New English Art Club and the Society of Landscape Painters and won several prizes for his landscape painting. The image of the reclusive painter, which is associated with him, seems to be fading significantly when met with all of these stories of artistic vibrancy and versatility. After all, the public eye often only really registers what is placed right in front of it, perhaps even on a silver platter, and Tom Fairs does not seem like the character to actively seek out the limelight. Yet that does not mean that he was inactive; one could say he was very much the opposite.

Written by Bea Redweik

#tom fairs #stained glass #basic design #central saint martins #central school of arts and crafts