Owdenden, Graham

Graham Owdenden grew up in a Fabian family, spent his childhood, which the journalist of the newspaper The Daily Mail called " idyllic " in Hampshire. Another family member was Sir John Betcham , a poet and writer, one of the founders of the Victorian Society ^{[1] [2]} . Ovenden studied at the Southampton School of Art from 1960 to 1964 and at the Royal College of Art from 1965 to 1968 ^[3] . Here he became friends with the future founder of pop art artist Peter Blake ^[1] . In 1975, Ovenden became a co-founder of a group of artists, later known as the Brotherhood of Ruralists or translated - "Brotherhood of rural residents." The seven artists who created it were characterized by a common interest in romanticism and a rural theme ^[3] . Ovenden became famous for his portraits of young girls (in his view they are a kind of "spring" of human life as an integral part of nature in the broad sense) ^[4] . Owdenden's right to create explicit images of children (often without any clothes) was defended by fellow artists, and the London police have been criticized by him for decades ^{[1] [2]} .

Owdenden published several books on the history of photography, which developed the theme of the image of girls, and from the 1950s began to publish his own photographs on this topic. Owdenden created illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s book about Alice’s adventures in Wonderland , for Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte . He designed his own house in Cornwall , which is a combination of original design and traditional styles ( Victorian , the movement "Art and Crafts" ...) ^[4] . Ovenden has lived and worked since the 1970s in this mansion called Barley Splatt in Bodmin-Moore ^{[5] [6]} .

Ovenden took part in collective exhibitions, including: “Alice” at the Waddington Gallery in London (1970); exhibitions of the Brotherhood of Ruralists at the Royal Academy of Arts ; exhibition “Nude” at the White Lane Gallery in Plymouth (1994). He also exhibited his work at solo exhibitions, including at the Piccadilly Gallery in London, where he has regularly exhibited since 1970. His works are in the Tate Collection and the Victoria and Albert Museum ^[4] , the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ^[7] .

Obscenity Image Creation and Sexual Offenses

In 1991, US Customs confiscated Ovenden’s collection of children's images, The State of Grace. The investigation against Ovenden ended after the statement of one of the girls who testified that she was a model for the artist from the age of four, but he never committed any sexual acts against her. In 1993, police arrived in Barley Splatt and seized dozens of boxes of photographs, as well as videos and books (it was originally announced that a pedophile network was opened, which included, apart from Ovenden, such famous cultural figures as artists Peter Blake, Graham Arnold , David Insho , photographer Ron Oliver , but the seized material did not justify police expectations, they were returned to the owner, and even exhibited in a London gallery - Akehurst, which allowed the public itself to judge yavlyayuts whether they obscene ^[8] ). Police officers also spoke with potential victims - former models of the artist. Models, their parents and artists reiterated their support for Owdenden. The English artist, graphic artist and photographer, representative of pop art David Hockney wrote to the president of the Royal Academy: “The idea that naked children are not beautiful seems to me disgusting” ^[1] . The artist was arrested in 1994, and then released on bail and was on bail for two years, but the investigation decided not to charge him ^{[9] [2]} .

The police returned in the mid-2000s, again confiscating the artist's work. In 2009, Owdenden appeared before the Truro Crown Court on charges of creating obscene images of children that were found on his computer. The case was not completed, in 2010 it was rejected by a judge ^[10] . In 2013, Owdenden was accused by four former model girls of mistreating them between 1972 and 1985 ^[1] . The crimes were committed when Owdenden photographed them in his studio in Cornwall and in his former home in London ^[10] . Two images of child sexual abuse discovered by police on Ovenden’s computer were also seized. He admitted that he created them by combining images from pornographic magazines and his own drawings for a project called Through the Dull Glass. Owdenden said he found the images “completely vile”, but they were not the product of a perverted mind, but a person who sought to resist evil with “clear eyes” ^[1] .

Pedophilia trial

In April 2013, Owdenden was convicted ofTruro's Crown Court for crimes (for one obscene assault and six indecent acts - English indecent assault and six counts of indecency ^[11] ), committed against girls aged six to fourteen years ^[2] . He was acquitted of five indecent assault charges. ^[1] The artist denied having committed violence against any of the children. He claimed to be a victim of a witch hunt and that his images captured children in a “state of grace” and “innocence” ^[6] .

Owdenden claimed that authorities harassed him from the early 1980s, when he created hoax images depicting street children of the Victorian era (it was then that the police first paid close attention to him ^[6] ). He denied that he had abused the trust of any of his young models and that his work was obscene ^{[5] [6]} . He noted that “in the world of art, glory and shame are one and the same thing”, citing Oscar Wilde as an example in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, and argued that the trial did not affect the price of his works ^{[5] [11]} , which were auctioned three weeks before the trial. The artist declared: “If [now] Christ appeared on Earth and uttered his famous words:“ Let the children come to me ” ^{[Note 1]} , he would probably be arrested as a pedophile and crucified.” ^{[11] [6]}

In June 2013, Owdenden launched a preemptive attack on a judge who was to convict him, claiming he had a reputation of “hanging judges too often ” . His tone changed during the trial in Plymouth - he humbly thanked the court when Judge Graham Cottle announced that the artist would not serve his term in prison. The judge accepted the view that the girls did not understand the true purpose of Owdenden, "which was undoubtedly sexual." Only in adulthood, some of them realized that they were his victims. Cottle, however, took into account factors such as the fact that at the time of the crimes that took place in the 1970s and 80s, the laws currently in force that protect children from sexual violence, as well as advanced age, had not yet been adopted Ovendena, who no longer poses a threat to children, the lack of previous convictions and the fact that he already “fell low in the eyes of society” ( Eng. “Steep fall from grace” ). Ovenden was sentenced to probation ^[5] - twelve months of imprisonment with a two-year delay ^[6] . After the trial in Plymouth, Ovenden refused to apologize to his victims and promised to appeal the verdict . ^[eleven]

Since conviction, Owdenden spent most of his time with his sister in Winchester and continued to paint. ^[6] Ovenden’s investigators were shocked that he had escaped prison. ^{[5] [11]} Attorney General (prosecutor) of England and Wales, Dominic Greve demanded a review of the sentence to Ovenden after a protest by activists working with abused children. The Court of Appeal noted that Graham Owdenden showed no regret for his victims and the earlier sentence was “excessively lenient.” Graham Owdenden was sentenced to imprisonment for two years and three months for sexual crimes against children. ^[5]

Writer and poet Laurie Lee, in an article on the artist’s work, wrote: “Being best known as an artist and draftsman, he [Owdenden] is also involved in the creation of music, poetry, photography, design and architecture. Ovenden was an instinctive and independent artist from the very beginning; as a child, he filled an album for drawing with both imaginary drawings and drawings from nature. Surprisingly, by the age of twelve, having heard Wanda Landowska on the radio, he designed for himself a decent harpsichord and splendidly decorated it. This is probably one of the earliest examples of his special obsession - the love of harmony, light and form, which he constantly improved over the years. He is a man who not only reflects the world that he wants to see, but also creates refined and personal projects on its basis ” ^[12] .

Lori Lee also noted the skill of Graham Owdenden's graphics and the deep meaning of his work: “His pencil drawing can be as light as a cobweb ... Graham Owdenden is a complex mystery. No one is like him. He is an artist of astute innocence who still rules his own island. ” Lee linked the impact of the artist’s work on the viewer with the original vision of the world, defined Ovenden’s style as “romantic classicism” with a share of “moderate realism” ^[12] . He especially highlighted the artist’s images of trees, "the shapes of their roots and branches, surrounded by the radiance of leaves and light." Many of his landscapes, according to Lee, are idyllic, others - "bear the mysterious imprint of the presence of the first person on this earth." Among the influences that shaped the Ovenden artist, Laurie Lee noted the work of Samuel Palmer and William Blake , and later - Graham Sutherland and Paul Nash ^[13] .

In 1976, Owdenden created the portrait of Peter and Juliet Blake. The canvas is signed by the initial of the artist "G" ( Eng. Graham ) and dated - "76" [year]. Technique - oil painting on canvas . The canvas size is 122 by 91.7 centimeters. This portrait was created by the artist for the first exhibition of the Brotherhood of Ruralists at the Royal Academy. It is a tribute to the friend and teacher of Owdenden, Peter Blake. After studying at the Southampton School of Art, Graham was awarded a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art, where he first met Blake, who later had a significant influence on his formation as an artist. Next to the artist is depicted his oldest daughter, Juliet Liberty Blake, at the age of seven. The painting was repeatedly presented at exhibitions: at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol in April - May 1981 (No. 107 in the catalog), at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (May - June 1981), at The Third Eye Center in Glasgow (July - August 1981 ), Camden Art Center in London (August - September 1981), as well as at the exhibition “Peter Nachum in the galleries of Leicester. The Brotherhood of Ruralists and Pre-Raphaelite ”in London (June - July 2005, No. 11 in the catalog) ^[14] .

Art critic Hugh Cumming noted in Ovenden’s landscapes the ability to convey the reality of the place through drawing and color manipulation, as well as a subtle sense of the spirit of the action scene, resulting in a picture that becomes much more than just a landscape. Its ghostly or romantic colors are poetic and symbolic. Cumming wrote that it is interesting to draw parallels of his paintings with both literary and visual English traditions of romanticism. From Cumming's point of view, it is important that Owdenden is also a poet with an interest in pagan mysticism ^[15] .

In the painting “[All Day] of All Saints” (another name for the painting is “The Sea Cathedral”, the English “All Hallows” or the English “The Sea Cathedral” ) the 1983 story is inspired by the eponymous story of an English poet and writer, best known for works in genres the supernatural fiction and children's literature of Walter John De La Mara ^[16] . With great difficulty, his hero arrives at a distant Cathedral in the late evening. The once-famous religious center has now fallen into disrepair and has rarely been used for worship. The strange caretaker of the cathedral leads the traveler through the neglected interior. He talks about the disappearance of the abbot, who was later found in a dark corner. The priest went crazy and cried, since that time he never regained consciousness. The weakening of faith made the cathedral too weak to dissipate the sinister forces that are seizing it more and more ^[17] . The Naval Cathedral, to which the traveler arrives in the story of De La Mar, in the picture of Ovenden lies on the edge of the earth, he faces the ocean. A ray of light is visible in the distance, directed from heaven down to the surface of the waves. The church in the picture is a symbol, it separates the earth from the sea and sky. There is a certain secret in the image, which is characteristic of many other works of Graham Owdenden ^[16] .

Owdenden himself claimed that his main theme in painting was landscapes of English nature, but what made him famous was the images of girls ^[2] . The idea of ​​an obscene image of naked children was to him, according to the artist, supposedly "disgusting." For proof, Owdenden quoted William Blake and Henry James . He believed that the ancient Greeks and Romans had no problems with nudity, she arose, in his opinion, during the crisis of the Judeo-Christian world in the XVII century ^[18] .

Owdenden began working on this topic in a series of paintings and photographs that he made with Peter Blake in 1970 on the plot of Alice Lewis Carroll's adventures. While Blake moved on to other subjects, Owdenden decided to delve into the subconscious of a teenager at puberty, creating numerous paintings and photographs of children, naked and dressed. Among them were custom-made portraits of children of outstanding parents. In accordance with the Law on the Protection of Children 1978, which states: “The person who created or allowed to take any indecent picture of the child,” former Owdenden clients are also subject to prosecution. In 1994, The Independent journalist admitted various points of view on such artist's works as charming, kitschy , sentimental, disgusting, even inept, but refused to admit them obscene, believing that openness and honesty disappeared in the "era of Victorian hypocrisy." Victorians, in his opinion, ignored the complex sexual issues that arise in the child. Photos and paintings by Ovenden give the opportunity to "study the fundamental mysteries" of man ^[8] .

Among the photographs taken by Ovenden, Lee singled out gloomy photographs of street children taken in the late 1950s in Rotherhit and East End ^[13] (the series was completed only in 1964 ^[9] ). A series of photographs of the "Streets of Childhood" ( Eng. "Childhood Streets" ) Graham Owdenden created as a teenager. Using a cheap Kodak Brownie fixed-focus camera, he shot other children during their games. As an art critic noted, analyzing Ovenden’s pictures, it was a time “when the car had not yet forced the children to leave the streets, and before the television lured them into an enclosed space.” The photographs are distinguished by sincerity, spontaneity, documentary image, record, according to the critic, “own identity and own world” of a child from the working class ^[19] .

Art critic and journalist Robert Melville He wrote that Owdenden came to photography with an unsurpassed knowledge of monochrome masterpieces of the Victorian era , from which he adopted the technique of "the finest chiaroscuro ." His female characters, however, according to Melville, unlike the models of Victorian photographers, are the heirs to the struggle for emancipation . They are sure that the world will belong to them ^[20] .

The artist’s wife is Annie Owdenden nee Gilmore. She received a private education at the Royal School of Wonstead , studied at the Wycombe School of the Arts from 1961 to 1965, receiving a diploma of a book illustrator and graphic designer. She worked as a graphic designer and artist in London for several years before moving to Cornwall in 1973. In 1975, Sir Peter Blake invited her to join a group of seven like-minded people, later this group was called the “Brotherhood of Ruralists” ^[21] .

Annie Owdenden taught drawing for seventeen years at the Adult Education Service in North Cornwall. Her personal exhibitions were held in Great Britain, she is an honorary member of the Southwestern Academy of Fine and Applied Arts. The artist designed theatrical scenery for four years at the Hampstead Garden Opera . Among her works: the production of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck , La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and the opera by the German romantic composer Friedrich von Flotov Marta . The artist is best known for her paintings depicting the landscapes of Cornwall. Her works are in many private collections around the world and appear in various publications ^[21] .

The couple had two children - a son and a daughter ^{[1] [2]} . The daughter of Annie and Graham Ovendenov, Emily, is a writer and singer who performed in the ensemble Mediæval Bæbes and the symphonic metal band Pythia . In a 2013 interview, she told The Guardian that her father often photographed her in her early childhood. Young children then often ran naked ... These photos, in her opinion, “were never associated with sex” ^[1] .

The Bodmin Mure House of Couples was an eccentric place - a neo - Gothic creation built from Cornwall granite with turrets and slit-like windows, 22 acres of land with beech thickets and a stream. Owdenden and his wife Annie invited artists, writers, and musicians. The children were asked to pose for Ovenden: sometimes in modern clothes, sometimes in Victorian costumes, which the artist kept for changing clothes, but often naked. Ovenden presented his house as the new Eden - a place where children could live as nature intended, without the limitations of the modern world ^{[1] [2]} .

In 2013, Owdenden stated that Barley Splatt was “stolen” from him after a divorce by his wife and son. He claimed that he was in a difficult financial situation and he did not have a penny ^[1] .

After Graham Owdenden's conviction, the Victoria and Albert Museum removed more than half of his 14 Ovenden works from his website ^[22] , and the Tate British Gallery removed 34 of his paintings from his online collection ^[23] (images of three abstract landscapes were later returned artist ^[24] ), his work in the Tate collection itself was no longer available to visitors by appointment ^[2] .

In October 2015, the British media reported that Judge Elizabeth Roscoe of the Hammersmith City Court was examining a collection of paintings from the Owdenden workshop confiscated by the police (it included his own works, as well as a collection of works by contemporary artists belonging to Ovenden, including paintings by Peter Blake and David Bailey ) to determine if they met the “decency” criterion, otherwise they would have to be destroyed. The writer and TV presenter Janet Street Porter compared this action with the medieval witch hunt ^[25] . Owdenden called the court hearing on the confiscation of his collection in accordance with Section 5 of the Child Protection Act of 1978 “a real farce. ” ^[26] The judge sentenced the destruction of a number of works from the Ovenden collection (including photographs of girls taken by the French writer and artist Pierre Luis in the 1860-1870s, as well as the works of the German photographer Guglielmo Plyushova ) ^[23] , citing the fact that, in her opinion, artistic merit does not endow "works of art with a kind of immunity from obscenity." She stated: “I have very little doubt that sexual satisfaction is at least one of the reasons Mr. Ovenden created these images,” “I am not a judge of art or artistic merit . ” “I am no judge of art or artistic merit " ). I evaluate images based on recognized standards of decency that exist today ” ^[26] .

• Annie Ovenden // Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators . - Oxford (USA): Oxford University Press, 2012 .-- T. 1. - S. 178. - 1000 p. - ISBN 978-0199-9230-52 .
• Cumming H. Post-Modern Landscape. The Art of Graham Ovenden (Eng.) // Art and Design: Magazine. - 1987. - August. - P. 77-80 .
• de la Mare, WJ Best Stories // London: Faber and Faber: Storybook. - 1957. - P. 288-324 .
• Graham Ovenden // Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators . - Oxford (USA): Oxford University Press, 2012 .-- T. 1. - S. 178-179. - 1000 s. - ISBN 978-0199-9230-52 .
• Gale I. Portrait of the artist as an accused man // The Independent: Newspaper. - 1994 .-- February 15.
• Golding M. Introduction // Graham Ovenden: Childhood Streets. - New York: Orphelia Editions, 1998 .-- 118 p. - ISBN 978-1888-4251-09 .
• Lee L. Foreword // Graham Ovenden by Academy Editions. Ed. Victor Arwas . - St Martins Pr, 1987. - S. 9-12. - 160 p. - ISBN 978-0312-0113-90 .
• Levy Geoffrey How the art establishment helped paedophile painter Graham Ovenden get away with child abuse for 20 years // The Daily Mail: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- April 5th.
• Lusher Ad. Paedophile artist's photographs and paintings must be destroyed, judge rules (Eng.) // The Independent: Newspaper. - 2015 .-- October 13.
• Melville R. An Osmotic Approach to the Photographs // The Brotherhood of Ruralists: Ann Arnold, Graham Arnold, Peter Blake, Jann Haworth, David Inshaw, Annie Ovenden, Graham Ovenden. London: Lund Humphries in association with the London Borough of Camden: Compilation. - 1981. - P. 80-82 . - ISBN 978-0853-3144-62 .
• Morris S. Artist Graham Ovenden jailed for two years for sexual abuse of children // The Guardian: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- October 9.
• Morris S. Graham Ovenden walks free after judged no longer a sexual threat (Eng.) // The Guardian: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- 4 June.
• Morris S. Graham Ovenden remains defiant and compares himself to Oscar Wilde (Eng.) // The Guardian: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- 4 June.
• Morris S. Graham Ovenden lived in rambling rural idyll with a dark side // The Guardian: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- April 2.
• Saner E. From Caravaggio to Graham Ovenden: do artists' crimes taint their art? (Eng.) // The Guardian: Newspaper. - 2016 .-- October 6.
• Stokes P. Graham Ovenden. British photographer, 1943— (Eng.) // Censorship: A World Encyclopedia by Derek Jones (Editor): Routledge: Encyclopedic Handbook. - 2001. - ISBN 978-1579-5813-50 .
• Street-Porter J. Judges should not have the power to destroy art on the grounds of obscenity // The Independent: Newspaper. - 2015 .-- 16 October.
• Watson L. “I was a moral coward”: Mother of girl “abused by renowned portrait artist dismissed daughter's allegations against him” (Eng.) // The Daily Mail: Newspaper. - 2013 .-- 12 March.

• Graham Ovenden (neopr.) . Official site of the artist. Date of treatment June 2, 2019.