workfortheeyetodotoo

The fine porch of Daniel Buren installed at the Chateau de Mouans-Sartoux in the south of France some time ago, the home of l’Espace de l’Art Concret. I was there quite recently, but unfortunately the porch was not, but a lot of works from an intermittent and difficult to define collection, which extends in little spurts all over the place. I always thought it was a difficult one to be orthodox about, l’Art Concret, in spite of its utopic idealism, it is constantly shifting, and finally that is to be admired.

I always wanted to make a Dinky Toy model of the whole procession of Anselm Kiefer moving his entire operation from Germany to France in the early 1990′s. But all  attempts at research were thwarted by secrecy of the event. The art transport company in Kassel would give nothing away, except that there were 47 trucks carrying the contents of his studio, the last five of which held the lead he had recently bought from its replacement on the roof of Cologne Cathedral.

Stephen Duncalf Garden 1979

I think it was finding again this image and scanning it well, to show all the transparency of watercolour, that caused me to begin all this. Stuff that is lost, like the man himself, The Suburban Fauvist.

Stephen Duncalf  worked in his studio in Victoria Rise, Clapham through the late nineteen seventies and early eighties, shortly before he moved to his brother’s house in Whalley Range , Manchester. He had built a table to work on, and a shelf to hold consecutive notebooks from the early nineteen seventies when he first worked in Nottingham.He subsequently moved to the suburb of West Bridgeford, Nottingham and painted toy soldiers for a living in a local factory, and arduously walked the Fens. He worked on the fabric of his house and its oak window sills, and ate an endless rogan josht curry. In 1999 made the apochryphal statement issued as a printed card.

With a view to much needed refreshment and change – next year, and for the foreseeablefuture, I will cease to make work, or concern myself with Art and all its associations. The time is well nigh to pause, reflect, and to re-assess.

Stephen Duncalf 7.12.99

About the same time a record of one of his paintings, held for distribution to embassies and consulates abroad, was circulated:

CMS Case Number 106855

Paintings Currently Missing (Stolen or Whereabouts Unknown)                                              From The Government Art Collection (GAC)

The painting below is listed in the decade it went missing, together                                        with brief information as to the relevant circumstances.                                                                 It cannot be proved that the painting was actually stolen.

1980’s : GAC14335

Room with Aquarium and Bric-a-Brac Stephen DUNCALF

Last known location: British High Commission, Suva, Fiji, in c 1982

Two paintings stolen from Somerset House, London in February 2008 and recovered by the police in September 2008, are the only stolen paintings that have been recovered during the last 15 years.                                                                                                                                      Several of his works still reside in Southampton Art Gallery in the David Brown Collection.