John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)

During the winter of 1965-6 Piper was preparing works for a solo exhibition at the June 1966 Aldeburgh Festival. Entitled Suffolk Churches and Landscapes, and organised by Marlborough Gallery, the show's catalogue lists thirty works in a range of mediums. Among them were eight large-scale abstract 'reliefs', created by laying wood, plaster and oil paint onto canvas-covered board. Rarely seen since they were first exhibited, most of these unusual works - with their strong, perpendicular rhythms - were derived from Piper's drawings of church towers in Suffolk (the titles of the catalogued works reveal that it is the towers of Alpheton, Corton, Kersey, Kessingland, Pettistree and Stansfield which feature as groups of three in the finished works). The current small-scale work, based on a single, unidentified church tower, was not exhibited in the Aldeburgh show but was described by Michael Gyselynck as a 'maquette' which Piper created, probably in 1965, whilst perfecting the techniques he would employ in the making of the full-size reliefs.

S.L.