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Lot Essay
Among John Piper's more distinctive recurrent subjects are his English church towers or spires, presented individually or as pairs or groups of three. These were rendered across a range of mediums including paintings, drawings, lithographs, screenprints, abstracted reliefs and photographs. The series began in the late 1950s but the largest and most characteristic, like the present work, Warmington Spire (1964), date from the mid 1960s. A church spire or tower in the English landscape, partly as a reminder of the position of the ecclesiastical authorities in the political and social economies of rural society, was one of John Constable's favoured motifs, and Piper would have been aware of that. But in terms of the composition of the present work, with the tower partly abstracted and isolated from the rest of the building to which it is attached, the influence of works by Piet Mondrian such as the Tate Gallery's Sun, Church in Zeeland; Zoutelande Church Facade (1909-10) seems to be apparent.
John Piper had photographed Warmington church for Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough - A Shell Guide by Juliet Smith (London, Faber and Faber, 1968, p. 114), with the negatives and prints now forming part of the Tate Gallery Archive. [TGA 8728/1/25/96]. Warmington church, according to the Guide, is 'one of the most famous of Northamptonshire's Early English churches, [having] a broach spire with very prominent lucarnes which give it a slightly lumpy appearance' (a broach spire has no bottom parapet; a lucarne is a dormer-type opening). But Piper's rendition of the spire exploits these features, resulting in a composition which has enormous strength combined with considerable elegance.
We are very grateful to Rev. Dr Stephen Laird FSA for preparing this catalogue entry.
John Piper had photographed Warmington church for Northamptonshire and the Soke of Peterborough - A Shell Guide by Juliet Smith (London, Faber and Faber, 1968, p. 114), with the negatives and prints now forming part of the Tate Gallery Archive. [TGA 8728/1/25/96]. Warmington church, according to the Guide, is 'one of the most famous of Northamptonshire's Early English churches, [having] a broach spire with very prominent lucarnes which give it a slightly lumpy appearance' (a broach spire has no bottom parapet; a lucarne is a dormer-type opening). But Piper's rendition of the spire exploits these features, resulting in a composition which has enormous strength combined with considerable elegance.
We are very grateful to Rev. Dr Stephen Laird FSA for preparing this catalogue entry.