An Unanswerable Question?

[ogohogoh]

THE CONTEXT:

On the 23rd June 1944 a V1 Flying Bomb fell at the South East end of Beechdale Road, Brixton, with a loss of 9 lives. It totally demolished 12 houses and badly damaged 20.  A further 20 houses were damaged in Endymion Road which intersected with Beechdale Road.

My parents and I moved to nearby Medora Road in June 1951 when I was aged 6, and my aunt and uncle moved to a prefab in Beechdale road with their children aged 6 and 4 at about the same time.  Beechdale Road was only a 5 minute walk from my home, so between the ages of 6 and 10 I would often visit my cousins for an hour or so.

I passed the bombsite on my way, and would often linger to explore the remains of the buildings.  Everything structural above ground had been demolished and cleared away, but at surface level there were the openings to house cellars and bomb shelters, and the ground was still strewn with fragments of the lives of the people that once lived there...shards of china, shoes, books, etc.   It was always worth a root about on the way to or from my cousins.  The unkempt look of the place also made it an ideal dumping ground for unwanted rubbish.

THE OBJECT:

I didn’t know what they were at the time, but my all-time favourite bombsite finds were the wonderful artist’s palettes.   These were large rectangles of board or glass completely covered in tacky blisters of paint in the most beautiful colours imaginable.  I loved them.  I would spend ages bursting the blisters until the lovely soft paint oozed out.  They were the first things I looked for whenever I visited the bombsite.

THE QUESTION:

Years later I became an artist myself...and it dawned on me that they were artist’s palettes...and that finding them in my youth was a sensual and formative experience.  They helped shape my life.

I have always wondered about the artist who dumped his palettes on that bombsite in the early to mid 1950s.  This was not an amateur artist...this was a professional and successful individual.  The palettes were very large, perhaps a metre or more square, and the paint impasto was very thick.  This was someone who could afford to spend whatever was needed on materials...someone who almost certainly had a studio in the area, and probably worked in a dynamic abstract impressionistic style to judge by the character of the palettes.

So – what chance would there be of identifying the artist?   If needs be, I can live without knowing!

Fred

[danuslave]

Hi Fred

How many palettes did you find?  It seems odd that an artist should dump more than one.

Is it possible that they were in one of the buildings before the bomb fell?  So perhaps a school or college?

Will watch the progress on this one with interest   

Linda

[ogohogoh]

Hi Linda,

Lots - but never more than a couple at a time.  Perhaps 15 or so in all over the years.  These were not shop-bought palettes, but large and practical mixing surfaces to be disposed of once all the clean surface was used up.

I think there was nowhere else to dump them...too large for a bin, and oily wet too...ideally they would have been burnt in the garden, which is what I image happened to them on the bombsite.  They appeared over several years. 

The photo is of the actual bombsite before it was cleared.

Fred

[acorngen]

Have you tried obtaining a yellow pages of the time to see what artists were advertising around that way?

[ogohogoh]

No - I didn't know where to start.  I'm not sure that yellow pages were around then...owning a phone was a luxury few could afford, and I doubt a fine artist would be in the book.  I'm certain this was a painter and not a commercial artist.  I very much doubt that he/she would work to commission.

[acorngen]

Its worth purusing that way but I would expect if the pallettes were as expensive as you suggest it would be a commercial artist rather than a hobbyist.

[ogohogoh]

Hi - they were not expensive palettes...just large pieces of wood and glass...just as artists might use today.  But the amount of paint was the expensive part...these palettes were thickly covered.  In todays money...if I were to dispose of a palette with that amount of paint on it...I would be spending hundreds of pounds a week on materials.  This was not a hobbyist or commercial artist...more like a Tate Gallery modernist of the 50s.  Fred

[Billyblue]

Hi Fred
Are there any 'old' art schools nearby, with someone who would know of an artist who had this untidy habit of throwing the palettes on the bomb site?
Or even one of the big galleries might know?
Sounds like a good theme for a mystery novel / film??    
Dawn M

[ogohogoh]

That's certainly a line of enquiry Dawn, although I'm pretty certain there were no art schools in Brixton or Streatham...most were some considerable distance away in central London.  But it might be worthwhile contacting a couple of our national galleries to see which major artists of the period came from South West London.

We'd have to add a love interest to turn it into a novel/film