‘Axe and Shears’
Li Yuan-chia (1929-1994)
Tinted photograph mounted on Rice Paper
360 x 390
1993
£25.00
2013.010
I bought this directly from Li in 1993. I had an overpowering
sense of standing next to a great but almost completely ignored artist, one who didn't fit with established narratives and someone from whom I could really
learn. The meeting and the build up to
it was in every way challenging and it wouldn’t have happened without the
intervention of Simon Cutts who has made a number of suggestions which, when
followed up, have resulted in collecting something brilliant.
People talk a lot about LYC Museum, the gallery Li ran until
1982. They talk of the transforming effect it had on their lives. I never went when
it was open and didn't even know it was there.
When I spoke to Li about it he regretted the level of commitment he had made to it feeling that although it had in a sense, the sense of being a service to others, been an art work it had distracted him from his other work and contributed to his isolation.
He would, he said, be interested to do a show at Abbot Hall only if Northern Arts Board would pay him £32,000 to compensate him for the way in which they had ‘treated’ him. I struggled with this feeling that that they had ‘treated’ him to years of funding and that perhaps they might not welcome these words on an application form. But this is the sort of arm lock I've got used to, the sort that can switch from banter to a shut door in the blink of an eye.
When I spoke to Li about it he regretted the level of commitment he had made to it feeling that although it had in a sense, the sense of being a service to others, been an art work it had distracted him from his other work and contributed to his isolation.
He would, he said, be interested to do a show at Abbot Hall only if Northern Arts Board would pay him £32,000 to compensate him for the way in which they had ‘treated’ him. I struggled with this feeling that that they had ‘treated’ him to years of funding and that perhaps they might not welcome these words on an application form. But this is the sort of arm lock I've got used to, the sort that can switch from banter to a shut door in the blink of an eye.
I met Li because; through Audrey Barker I was introduced to
Simon Cutts. Simon had possession of Audrey’s accumulated collection of LYC
catalogues. He later gave them (without her permission) to Iniva.
He suggested
to me that I might like to write a pamphlet for the Coracle ‘Little Critics’
series on the way in which Li used publishing as a platform for artists’
practice.
Fine I said, the only problem being that I didn’t know and
had never met Li and had never been to the museum or seen any of its shows. He
gave me a selection of 'Little Critics' in a nice little box to have a look at.
Nothing much happened for about 18 months, I kept it in mind.
I collected as many catalogues as I could find from antiquarian and specialist
book shops, finally hitting paydirt at the fabulous Michael Moon’s bookshop in
Whitehaven where I was able to order LYC Catalogues by shelf length. I probably have a complete set now including a large book on
Winifred Nicholson published under the imprint of LYC press.
I called at the museum a number of times at the beginning of
the decade. It had a very derelict appearance. Sometimes I
knew he was in but he just wasn’t answering the door. It was a major effort
because at the time I didn’t have a car and the visits I made were on the back
of the visits I was making to the area researching ‘Banks Head a Painters Place’
about the Nicholsons and their guests at Banks in the late 20’s in a selection
of rented and borrowed vehicles. Everyone said he was difficult to deal with. He
was.
Finally on possibly the third attempt he opened the door and
he let me in. I wanted to see his work I explained… I had a commission from
Simon Cutts… I knew Li’s early work from material in private collections and
indeed from the Abbot Hall Collection and of course I knew of the renewal of
critical interest in his work since Rasheed Araeen had included him in ‘The
Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain’, at the Hayward Gallery in 1989. I found out as we
talked though that Li had been frustrated that he had been unable to interest the
organisers in the work he was making now.
Because of this he refused to discuss anything historical and
especially the museum and its publishing with me. The ‘Little Critic’ died.
He marched me tantalisingly past a room full of older work
(Hanging Disks) and sat me down in the kitchen.
He began to show me his
photographs and all around us were the scenarios he had been photographing.
I knew instantly how fantastic and original they were. How powerfully they expressed the way he saw things. I
recognise in them the basis of the formal language of the New British Sculpture
of the 80’s particularly those artists of that generation represented by the Lisson Gallery which
both Audrey and Li had been associated with a decade earlier. I could also see
how intensely symbolic, poetic and reflective they were and that they proceeded
from another unfamiliar (to me) tradition.
When I later showed them to Audrey
she was struck by the way they reprised something of the ‘Moon Show' which Li
had installed at the Lisson gallery in 1969. She vividly recalled an
arrangement of leaves and a swing.
I knew I would buy some straight away; In fact I cooked up
the idea of setting up a standing order. I could see Li needed income and
thought this arrangement might suit him and not empty my pockets so rapidly. I asked him how much he wanted and he settled on the astonishing figure of £25 each, a price that I have always
regarded as a personal gift.
I bought two, both using the motif of a hatchet and shears supporting each other and intended to write to him with my suggestion about buying more. In fact I contemplated writing to him and suggesting that I come and work for him as an assistant. I also contemplated how I would explain this madness to others. Even now I feel robbed of opportunity by his death.
I bought two, both using the motif of a hatchet and shears supporting each other and intended to write to him with my suggestion about buying more. In fact I contemplated writing to him and suggesting that I come and work for him as an assistant. I also contemplated how I would explain this madness to others. Even now I feel robbed of opportunity by his death.
As he prepared them for me he carefully stamped and numbered
them . This one is [LYC 248/93|Banks, Brampton Cumb. CA8 2JH. England.] He mounted
the photographs on rice paper and recorded details of the work in a book. He
showed me how they were to be framed in black. I visited him at the museum a
number of times but before any of my plans could be articulated or explored I learned that he was ill. I visited him subsequent to the diagnosis of the
cancer that killed him (he had ignored early symptoms) and I visited him again in
the Cumberland Infirmary shortly before he transferred to a hospice to die.
As well as being in a good deal of physical discomfort he
was in turmoil really not wanting to die and insecure about his will. He worried that he could not rely
on the contacts he had named in his will to execute it as he wished. He
described the will as a mistake but died weeks later without changing it.
One of the things that troubled me most about Li’s death was
the way in which people moved in on him claiming territory and controlling
access to him. Audrey was desperate to see him before he died and shamefully was not assisted by someone who later briefly became a trustee of the LYC
foundation.
The LYC was full of Li’s work. Most of it was removed after
his death to Iniva who produced in 2000 ‘Li Yuan-chia: Tell me what is not yet
said’ with essays by Guy Brett and Nick Sawyer. The exhibition (Curated by Guy
Brett) toured to Camden Arts Centre and to Abbot Hall, after my time there and presumably not in exchange for £32,000!
Much to my surprise the exhibition and book recognised the importance of this late work which was featured very prominently.
There are plans for the LYC Foundation to develop at Banks. I really hope that one day this happens.
Much to my surprise the exhibition and book recognised the importance of this late work which was featured very prominently.
There are plans for the LYC Foundation to develop at Banks. I really hope that one day this happens.
Links
Hello there, Christian,
ReplyDeleteI am Wenjun, we are a documentary film studio, based in Taipei Taiwan, having been making a documentary film about Li Yuan Chia. I am very interested in your detailing about your meeting with him in his final years, particularly as he revealing to you that he wouldn't open his own exhibition unless Nothern Art supposedly making up to him. Would you like to talk more about it?