Adrian Durham Stokes (27 October 1902 – 15 December 1972) was a British art critic with a speciality in early Renaissance sculpture and the aesthetics of stone-carving. He helped to turn the traditional Cornish fishing-port of St. Ives into an internationally acclaimed centre of modern art.

Early life

Born on 27 October 1902 into a wealthy stockbroker family living in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Adrian Stokes was the youngest of his parents' three children. After public school,

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

, he studied philosophy at

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, graduating,

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

1923, with second-class results in his examinations (excelling in philosophy but refusing to submit ancillary scripts in German and maths). Stokes then travelled around the world. He incorporated some of his resulting diary and reflections into his first book, ''

The Thread of Ariadne ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' (1925), publication of which led to his introduction to

Osbert Sitwell Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet CH CBE (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell. Like them, he devoted his life to art and l ...

, and to the art of Early Renaissance Italy and to the avant-garde creations of the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

, both of which Stokes applauded in his next book, '' Sunrise in the West'' (1926).

Carving aesthetic

Stokes's first major achievements began after he met modernist poet,

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

in November 1926, and after he started analysis with

Melanie Klein Melanie Klein (; ; Reizes; 30 March 1882 – 22 September 1960) was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalysis, psychoanalyst known for her work in child analysis. She was the primary figure in the development of object relations theory. Kl ...

, in January 1930. Stokes evolved an innovative aesthetic in the first two of his major books of the 1930s - ''

The Quattro Cento ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The' ...

'' (1932) and '' Stones of Rimini'' (1934). In ''

'' he characterized the intense Early Renaissance feeling for material and space as 'mass-effect' and 'stone-blossom'. The stone—deeply respected as a medium – is, he said, 'carved to flower' thereby bringing to the surface the fantasies the artist reads in its depths. Noted art critic

Paul George Konody Paul George Konody (30 July 1872 – 30 November 1933) was a Hungarian-born, London-based art critic and historian, who wrote for several London newspapers, as well as writing numerous books and articles on noted artists and collections, with a ...

described the book as "remarkable and enthralling", and said that Stokes "makes words blossom as the marble blossomed under the chisel of some Renaissance sculptor".Janet Sayers, ''Art, Psychoanalysis, and Adrian Stokes: A Biography'' (2018), p. 81. '' Stones of Rimini'' (1934) tightens and focuses these organicist themes, further analyzes the artistic process, and establishes thereby one of Stokes's most central themes: the duality of 'carving-modelling'. A fine 'carver' allows the form to come to life through the medium of the stone; the 'modeller' - on the other hand - sees the medium as so much stuff on which to impose a preconceived idea. In the contemporary art of the 1930s Stokes found these 'carving' qualities in the work of

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters of abstract art in England. Backg ...

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadin ...

, and

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

, whose

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

he championed in articles in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''. As a lover of ballet and a ballet-critic Stokes also promoted the avant-garde creations of the

in two further books: '' To-Night the Ballet'' (1934) and ''

Russian Ballets Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

'' (1935). Following the end of his analysis in 1935 he learnt to paint, joined th
Euston Road
school of art, and extended his carving-modelling aesthetic to painting in his seventh book, ''Colour and Form'' (1937).

Transforming St Ives

In 1938 Stokes married and moved with his artist wife,

Margaret Mellis Margaret Nairne Mellis (22 January 1914 – 17 March 2009) was a Scottish artist, one of the early members and last survivors of the group of modernist artists that gathered in St Ives, in Cornwall, in the 1940s. She and her first husband, Adr ...

, to live in

Carbis Bay Carbis Bay (Cornish: ''Karrbons'', meaning "causeway") is a seaside resort and village in Cornwall, England. It lies southeast of St Ives, Cornwall, St Ives, on the western coast of St Ives Bay, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The Sou ...

t Ives, Cornwall T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is de ...

where their son Telfer was born. Meanwhile—through bringing

and

, and, with them,

Naum Gabo Naum Gabo (born Naum Neemia Pevsner; Russian language, Russian: Наум Борисович Певзнер; Hebrew language, Hebrew: נחום נחמיה פבזנר) (23 August 1977) was an influential sculptor, theorist, and key figure in Russia's ...

, to St Ives in 1939 – Stokes became the main catalyst of the town's transformation into an internationally acclaimed centre of modern art. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he worked as a market gardener and for the

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting ...

. Alongside this work he completed a further Early Italian Renaissance book, ''Venice'' (1945). He also wrote an autobiographical book, ''Inside Out'' (1947), in which he drew on material from his psychoanalysis to which he added reflections about the art of Cézanne.

Psychoanalytic aesthetic

''Inside Out'' (1947) was published after Stokes left St Ives for London. This period in his life ended with divorce from Margaret after which Stokes married her younger sister, the ceramic artist

Ann Stokes Ann Stokes or Ann Mellis (21 September 1922 – 21 April 2014) was a British and Scottish-born ceramic artist. Life Stokes was born on the east coast of Scotland at Gullane in 1922. She was born at the manse as her father was a Reverend. In 1 ...

, with whom he had two children, Philip and Ariadne. In the following years he drew on the work of Klein and other psychoanalysts in reformulating his previous carving-modelling aesthetic in terms of 'depressive' and 'paranoid-schizoid' states of mind. This featured in his book, '' Smooth and Rough'' (1951), and was much more developed in his next book, ''

Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspir ...

'' (1955) now published by Tavistock. Between the date of the Michelangelo publication to 1967 he published 6 books with

Tavistock Tavistock ( ) is an ancient stannary and market town and civil parish in the West Devon district, in the county of Devon, England. It is situated on the River Tavy, from which its name derives. At the 2011 census, the three electoral wards (N ...

. At the same time Stokes helped and contributed papers to the 'Imago Group' which met regularly for nearly eighteen years to discuss applications of psychoanalysis to philosophy, politics, ethics, and aesthetics. A year after his death in 1972 these papers were published by Carcanet in the book, '' A Game That Must Be Lost'' (1973) which remains one of the most fitting tributes to his life's work.

Works

*''The Thread of Ariadne''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1925 *''Sunrise in the West''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1926 *''The Quattro Cento''. London: Faber & Faber, 1932 *''The Stones of Rimini''. London: Faber & Faber, 1934 *''Tonight the Ballet'', London: Faber & Faber, 1934 *''The Russian Ballets'', London: Faber & Faber, 1935 *''Colour and Form''. London: Faber & Faber, 1937 *''Venice: An Aspect of Art''. London: Faber & Faber, 1945 *''Cézanne''. London: Faber & Faber, 1947 *''Inside Out''. London: Faber & Faber, 1947 *''Art and Science''. London: Faber & Faber, 1949 *''Smooth and Rough''. London: Faber & Faber, 1951 *''Michelangelo: A Study in the Nature of Art''. London: Tavistock, 1955 *''Raphael''. London: Faber & Faber, 1956 *''Greek Culture and the Ego''. London: Tavistock, 1958 *''Monet''. London: Faber & Faber, 1958 *''Three Essays on the Painting of our Time''. London: Tavistock, 1961 *''Painting and the Inner World''. London: Tavistock, 1963. *''The Invitation in Art''. London: Tavistock, 1965. Preface by Richard Wollheim. *''Venice'' (illustrated by John Piper). London: Duckworth, 1965 *''Reflections on the Nude''. London: Tavistock, 1967 *''The Image in Form''. Ed. R. Wollheim. London: Penguin Books, 1972 *''A Game That Must Be Lost''. Ed. E. Rhode. Cheadle: Carcanet, 1973 *''Penguin Modern Poets 21''. Ed. S. Spender. London: Penguin Books, 1973 *''The Critical Writings of Adrian Stokes''. Ed. L. Gowing. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978 *''With All the Views: The Collected Poems of Adrian Stokes''. Ed. P. Robinson. Manchester: Carcanet, 1981 *''Art and Analysis'': ''An Adrian Stokes Reader''. Ed. M. Harris Williams, London: Karnac Books, 2014

References

External links

*
Kite, S. ''et al''. Adrian Stokes: Aesthete, critic, painter, poet.Tucker, P. ''et al. Adrian'' Stokes: Art Writers in Britain.
* ttp://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/adrian-stokes-2002 Paintings by Stokes owned by Tate Britain. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stokes, Adrian 1902 births 1972 deaths English art critics Analysands of Melanie Klein People involved with mental health 20th-century English poets People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford