ART

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ART AGINGTHE WORK OF JOHN PIPER (1903-1992)
This talk addresses some of the major issues
being researched for a D. Phil, the subject of
which is art and ageing, with special regard to
scaffolding, the extended mind, and embodiment,
as these apply to the visual artist. On this
occasion we concern ourselves with the life and
work of John Piper (1903-1992) .
We look at the results of Pipers creative and
neuromuscular development, his perceptual
ability, the possibility of hypergraphia, the
scaffolding theory of aging and cognition (STAC),
the zone of proximal development (ZPD), and
external factors which affected his work. With
thanks and acknowledgements to Hugh Fowler
Wright, Frances Spalding, Charlie Butter, Orde
Levinson, June Osborne, S. John Woods, Richard
Ingrams, Goldmark Gallery, Marlborough Gallery,
David Fraser Jenkins, Peter Cannon-Brooks, Luke
Piper, CCA Gallery, Kelpra Studios, Curwen
Studio.
PAXTONS TOWER AND ABERGLASNEY (1980) MIXED MEDIA
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John Piper wrote 250 essays, produced stage
sets, designed tapestries (including one at
University of Sussex 1978), produced
illustrations for nearly two hundred books, took
over 5000 photographs, (Tate Gallery Archives),
showed at over thirty solo exhibitions, including
the Tate Gallery, made designs for Festival of
Britain, designed stained glass, produced over
400 prints, by aquatint, autolithography,
etching, screenprint, wood engraving, and
woodcuts. He produced probably over a thousand
sketches and paintings in various media,
including oil painting, wax-resist, gouache, and
watercolour.
JOHN PIPER AT FAWLEY BOTTOM STUDIO
Justin Blanco-White was a mutual friend who was
indirectly responsible for John and Myfanwy first
meeting. Myfanwy was an Oxford graduate, who
later became Johns (second) wife. They lived
in Fawley Bottom farmhouse from 1935.
JUSTIN BLANCO-WHITE, JOHN PIPER AND MYFANWY EVANS
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His paintings include gouache and oils, and the
prints included etchings, screenprints and
autolithographs, most of which (with the possible
exception of his nude studies) are highly rated
by art-lovers who follow the English Neo-Romantic
tradition, in which Piper was a leading figure
during the twentieth century.
CUSTOMS HOUSE, POOLE (1951) COLLAGE, AND EYE AND
THE CAMERA FLAME 4, (1967) SCREENPRINT
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For those who subscribe to the common belief
that artists are born, not made, Piper could be
a salutary lesson. His admission to the Royal
College of Art (RCA) was subject to his first
undertaking a course of study at Richmond School
of Art. Even though he met this condition, a
tutor at the RCA was later to say that he waslow
in manual dexterity. Considering such
comments, there is strong physical evidence that
his continued practice resulted in considerable
improvement, even up to his late seventies and
early eighties. Whilst there is evidence
that the physical/neurological ability of some
artists deteriorates during their later years,
this was only true of Piper during the last five
or six years of his life, following two
operations, which left him severely debilitated.

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Even as a youngster, he was never without ideas,
and this, coupled with prolific output and his
somewhat low neuromuscular skills (at least
during his early years), provides a clue to the
neurological condition referred to by Flaherty
(2005) as hypergraphia, resulting from bi-polar
disorder, that might have been an underlying
factor in his creativity. As Flaherty says,
Temporal lobe changes, as in hypergraphia,
often increase idea generation, sometimes at the
expense of quality....Creative drive is not
identical to skill-the latter depends more on
neocortical association areas. (Flaherty,
A.W., (2005) Frontotemporal and Dopaminergic
Control of Idea Generation and Creative Drive,
The Journal of Comparative Neurology 493
147-153 (2005) ) (The right , medial surface
shows mesolimbic dopaminergic projections that
may drive goal directed behaviour and decrease
latent inhibition).
BRAIN PATHWAYS INVOLVED IN CREATIVITY
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Hypergraphia could have been the reason that, as
a child, Piper had filled sketch books with
minute drawings and notes from trips that he made
to Romney Marsh and similar areas. Drawing at
the RCA consisted of working at an easel or
donkey, usually on an Imperial size board, from
life or from the antique, rather than filling
small sketch books showing landscapes and
buildings. The quality of the drawings in his
sketch books had been previously much improved
by scaffolding he received (it is believed,
from the father of his close friend Frank
Milward), following earlier similar help provided
from the son of the stationers in Epsom, William
Henry (David) Birch, who went on to become the
Head of Epsom Art School.
EARLY SKETCH BOOK
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An explanation from the educational context of
scaffolding, comes from a comment by
Chrisley, Scaffolding is the case where the
prop need only be present to learn the ability,
after which it can be removed and the ability
retained . Augmentation is when the prop must
be retained for the ability to be possessed, and
no stage is ever reached where the prop is no
longer required for the ability to be present.
(Chrisley, R. (2008) In conversation, and
comments on an essay.)
DIAGRAM OF SCAFFOLDING
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Whilst Clark (1998) suggests a variation, the
recently published results of neuroscientific
research, referred to as scaffolding theory of
aging and cognition (STAC) has been described by
Park and Reuter-Lorenz (2009) to account for
an integrative view of the aging mind,
suggesting that pervasive increased frontal
activation with age is a marker of an adaptive
brain that engages in compensatory scaffolding
in response to the challenges posed by declining
neural structures and functions. Clark, A.
(1998), Being There Putting Brain, Body, and
World Together Again, Cambridge MA, MIT Press
p45, p194-195 Park, D.C. and Reuter-Lorenz, P.
(2009) The Adaptive Brain Aging and
Neurocognitive Scaffolding, Annual Review of
Psychology Vol. 60 173-196, Jan. 2009
DIAGRAM OF SCAFFOLDING THEORY OF AGING AND
COGNITION (STAC)
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These two lithographs of the same place from
different angles, were made in 1944 and 1982.
The later image, produced when the artist was
seventy-nine, shows that his sense of
chiaroscuro had not diminished, and had arguably
improved (he had no need of yellow to project the
foreground).
TWO VIEWS OF GRONGAR HILL
Both images were printed by lithography, by the
same print-maker, and demonstrate how STAC could
apply in neuromuscular skills as well as
cognition .
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Even during his youth, Piper was not adverse to
seeking assistance, and with good teachers, it is
quite likely that they would have used
scaffolding (even if not by name) as a method of
teaching from the known to the unknown. It
is reported that he went to the Head of Art at
Epsom College, to ask for help in choosing the
right type of paints for the colour washes in
his sketch books, those he was using at the time
(cheap watercolours, and crayons which he
reground) not drying as he wished. It was then
that he was directed to the stationers. The
paints that were recommended by David Birch
were a type of gouache, which Piper went on to
use successfully for half a century. Without
going too deeply into technicalities, the
difference in the result of using gouache and
watercolour is dependent upon the use of process
paste and Gum Arabic, and the difference in
drying times that results. He was also
introduced to Pentel oil pastels which he also
used from that time on, especially with his
mixed media and wax-resist images. The
advice (scaffolding) that Piper received was
therefore aiding his cognitive development, which
was then tested experientially, before he
returned for more scaffolding.
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EXPERIMENTATION
This seems to have been a pattern followed by
Piper to good effect throughout much of his life.
He sought assistance and advice from sources he
knew to be experts in their field, and he knew
enough about his own abilities and shortcomings
to be aware of the end of his current zone of
proximal development (described later). He
received cognitive and practical instruction in
ceramics from Geoffrey Eastop, and cognitive
instruction in stained glass from Patrick
Reyntiens.
The images show twelve ceramic pieces designed
and glazed by Piper and twelve stained glass
foliate heads designed by him
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EXPERIMENTATION CONTINUED
He was taught both cognitively and practically
in lithography by Stanley Jones of Curwen Press,
and silkscreen printmaking by Chris Prater of
Kelpra Studios. Piper acknowledged that he had a
chemistry with both printmakers, and that both
encouraged his experimentation.
Stanley Jones, lithographer and a silkscreen
print of Saint Davids Cathedral. produced by
Chris Prater in 1982, when Piper was seventy-nine
years of age. It is one of his last images, and
considered by many to be one of his finest.
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In his youth, on Romney Marsh, his only
companion was his friend Frank Milward, whereas
at the RCA he considered himself a mature
student, having previously spent time at Epsom
College, a year at Richmond under Raymond Coxon,
and about four years as an articled clerk at his
fathers offices in London (to keep a promise
made to his father). His height is also said
to have caused him to feel awkward at that stage
in his life (He was tall, and long-boned). This
could have been a contributory factor underlying
his low manual dexterity . During his time at
Richmond and the RCA, life drawing and drawing
from the antique were comparatively public
events. This is confirmed by one of his
tutors, Morris Kestelman, who said, He was
nearly four years older than the average student
when he came to the College, and he felt it.
There was an awkwardness in his drawing....he
simply hadnt had the opportunity to do the
volume of work that gives an artist the
fluidity. West, A. (1979) John Piper, London,
Secker and Warburg.
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Cognitively however, it seems that even as a
youngster in his early teens, Piper was advanced
for his years, and it also seems that his
neuromuscular ability must have been of a
reasonable standard, since, at the age of twelve
he had been given a No.2 Brownie camera as a
gift, and within a year or so was processing his
own film. Anyone familiar with the drums,
winders, chemicals and hands-on approach
required (in the dark) will be aware of the
difficulties. By processing his film himself, he
would have been learning to overcome the problems
of low chiaroscuro inherent in such early, low
cost cameras. Such experiments would
undoubtedly have stood him in good stead when he
went on to experiment with photo and acetate
lithographic printmaking.
No 2 BROWNIE CAMERA
His cognitive ability was such that by the age of
fourteen he was comparing his own images with
those of others, and questioning the relationship
between vision, experience and meaning.
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He would have been delighted when, at
seventeen, a family friend presented him with a
second, more advanced Ideal camera with a Zeiss
lens, an optical photographic lens, providing a
normal field of view at wider open apertures and
an even wider field of view with smaller
apertures, without astigmatism or curvature of
field. The instruction he also received
regarding its use provided scaffolding onto the
experience he had gained from using his first
camera, expanding his zone of proximal
development (ZPD), described by Vygotsky
(1896-1964) and later used in 1976 by Wood,
Bruner and Ross to develop their idea of
scaffolding. The experience gained from
scaffolded embodiment changes the starting
point, thereby providing a new ZPD. Any number
of new ZPDs can be added by further scaffolding,
and possibly by experience, with trail and error
providing self-scaffolding as shown in the
diagram.
ZONES OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT
The picture alongside shows the result of
third-stage scaffolding (a, aconsolidation b,
ab, consolidation of ab c, abc,
consolidation of abc) Wood, D., Bruner, J.S.,
Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in
problem solving. Journal of Psychology and
Psychiatry. (p17).
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One of Pipers two brothers was running the firm
when Pipers father died in 1927, and having
lost another of her sons in the First World War,
his mother encouraged John to apply for a place
at the RCA. It appears that Piper was supported
in many ways by his mother, who bought him a car
(a bull nosed Morris), helped him and his first
wife, Eileen Holding, to purchase two houses
virtually concurrently, and gave him a regular
allowance for many years. (She died in 1957,
aged ninety-three). Piper is said to have
thought of himself as not rich, but having
sufficient. The allowance certainly gave him
the freedom to experiment in his work, and he
supplemented his income by writing for journals
such as the New Statesman, and The Listener, and
later for art magazines.   1934 was an
eventful year for Piper. He visited Paris with
Eileen, and later in the year, when holidaying
with Ivon Hitchens at Sizewell, a phone call to
his host resulted in Piper being asked (as the
owner and driver of a motor car) to give a lift
to Myfanwy Evans, who was to have been a guest
but was stranded at Saxmundham railway station,
about six miles inland. Many years later,
Myfanwy was later to describe how Ivon was
annoyed by their lateness for dinner, the return
journey having taken over two hours because we
stopped off to walk along the beach, and have a
swim. It is also jokingly said to have taken
nearly another hour to rid the two travellers of
the sand in their clothes. Johns first wife
Eileen had already become involved with Welsh
artist Ceri Richards, who was a neighbour in
London. John and Myfanwy married in 1937, and
remained a devoted couple until Johns death. He
worked until 1985, after which he had two
abdominal operations. He did not fully recover
from the second of these, (1987) and died in
1992. Converation with Myfanwy Piper 1994
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PIPER AND THE EXTENDED MIND
In 1962 John and Myfanwy Piper acquired this
cottage (left) on Pen Caer in Pembrokeshire. The
painting below (Rosenthal, 2001) of the farmhouse
known as Mabws Fawr, shows the view from the
cottage, across the valley.
It was at Pen Caer that Piper produced some of
his most memorable images. But it was not
only John Piper who benefited from the beauty of
the area. When the viewer looks at his
Pembrokeshire images, they are able, through
their own sensitivity, to develop their
aesthetic sophistication, by allowing John
Pipers images to become part of their own
extended minds.
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This image (right) of Pen Caer which I painted
a couple of years later, shows Pipers cottages,
and his favourite walk to Pwll Deri. The red
headland (below right) is my later painting of
that headland itself. The photograph was taken
by John. Piper was never without his camera and
sketchbook, so they can be validly described as
contributing to his extended mind, as were the
paintings which resulted, since they served, in
much the same way .
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But his pictures are more than part of John
Pipers extended mind. In the same way as any
perceived artefact is part of our extended mind,
so a picture, when perceived, also becomes a part
of the viewers cognition. Perhaps, because it
is more likely to have emotive connotations for
the perceiver, it is even more likely to do so.
When I look at any of these images of the Pen
Caer area images, I am reminded of Johns other
images of the north Pembrokeshire area. I may
not be able to name their locations, but I can
picture them in my own mind. And some of them
will give me ideas for new images, thus extending
my mind, and then extending the mind of the
perceiver of the picture I will paint. Perhaps
this is what is meant when we say that art is
self- perpetuating. Piper was influenced by
the work of Matisse, Braque, Picasso, and Dufy,
but as West points out, he was influenced just
as much by Pembrokeshire itself. He tells of how
Piper was looking for a certain effect of
transparency, which had evaded him until he was
painting in Pembrokeshire . On the brink of his
seventieth birthday, Piper had once again
established himself as a painter of abundant
promise. West, A. (1979) John Piper, London,
Secker and Warburg. (p155-156) Thank you for
your attendance, and for your attention.