John Martin
By Canon Peter Dodd
Interest in the painter, John Martin, is certainly having a great revival. The exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery, mounted with the co-operation of Tate Britain and continuing until June 5th, displays an impressive and dramatic cross-section of his work. The book by Barbara Morden – “John Martin; Apocalypse Now” – came out at the end of last year and establishes him as an “apocalyptic, sublime” painter within the Romantic tradition. She usefully places him in the social and political turmoil of his day, and includes a valuable chapter on his undoubted influence on the 20th century, particularly in cinema. The splendid book by Max Adams – “The Firebringers” – republished in paperback as “The Prometheans” – puts him at the heart of the inventive and entrepreneurial revolution of the first half of the 19th century. And all this from his humble background in Haydon Bridge, where an extensive series of Martin related events are being held this year and next (see “The World of John Martin”- www.wojm.org.uk).
'The Bard' by John Martin
Martin’s picture of “The Bard” beside this article is an early work, but with significance for his whole life. His portrayal of the gorge is supposedly influenced by Allen Banks, which he must have known well as a boy. The last Welsh Bard stands on the rock defying the army of Edward I coming down from the castle like an army of ants, before throwing himself off the rock to his death in the gorge. It is a battle for Martin between the old order, which he knew so well in rural Northumberland and the invasion of the industrial revolution. It is the battle fought between William Blake and Isaac Newton in the previous century. It is ironic that Martin was later to be in the inner circle of the inventors of the age.
John Martin’s work has a very real contemporary significance in terms of both natural and human catastrophe and the options before us as human beings on a fragile planet. The Laing is to be congratulated on their magnificent exhibition.
City and County
May 2011
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