Dimensions: support: 1092 x 1092 mm frame: 1194 x 1194 x 76 mm
Copyright: © Estate of Stanley Spencer | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: This is Sir Stanley Spencer's "Mending Cowls, Cookham," a rather enigmatic oil painting. Editor: It’s strikingly strange, almost surreal. The figures look so isolated against this brooding sky. Curator: Absolutely, and consider Cookham's historical context. Spencer consistently returned to this village, imbuing it with personal and often biblical symbolism, a refuge in times of intense upheaval. Editor: I’m drawn to the physicality of the cowls themselves, these huge crafted objects, seemingly fragile yet demanding repair. It speaks to the labor and skill inherent in the everyday. Curator: Precisely, and it invites us to reflect on the roles of labor and community within the canvas. Editor: Well, I find the subject matter strangely captivating. Curator: Indeed, a fascinating juxtaposition of the mundane and the mystical.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-mending-cowls-cookham-t00530
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The wooden cowls, which move with the wind, provide ventilation to the oast houses where hops are dried. These examples could be seen from the nursery window of Fernlea, the house in Cookham where Spencer grew up. For him, Cookham was a sacred place and, in his paintings, was often the setting for events in the Bible. Of these cowls Spencer wrote: ‘They seemed to be always looking at something and somewhere. When they veered round towards us they seemed to be looking at something above our own nursery window ... With their white wooden heads, they served as reminders of religious presence.’ Gallery label, November 2019
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