JOHN TUNNARD

‘Holiday’ was John Tunnard’s contribution to one of the most imaginative and ambitious expression of post was optimism in Britain: School Prints Ltd.

The idea behind this scheme was to commission good artists to create original lithographs which would then be editioned in large numbers and sold cheaply to schools; thus enabling schoolchildren to be surrounded by an ever changing supply of genuine works of art. Mrs. Rawnsley, the director of the programme, was keen to stress that the children were not be patronised and the note at the beginning of the series stated that : ‘the pictures themselves are far from being juvenile in their concept. While they definitely hold the interest of the children and appeal to their imaginations, they are sophisticated by adult standards.’..School Prints chose to abandon the antiquated theory of exposing children to inane nursery pictures, in favour of developing a taste upon a level of acknowledged artistic values.

Tunnard’s ‘Holiday’ is considered by Mel Gooding to be ‘in his best vein of semi-abstract surrealist fantasy’ and shows Tunnard using is distinctive vocabulary of moulten forms to evoke a spirit of enjoyment, fun and relaxation. (School Prints by Mel Gooding Arts Review July 1980.) As the School Prints’ notes describe: ‘it conveys the gayness and irresponsibility which is predominantly one’s feeling of a really good holiday’.

Unfortunately the enthusiasm of School Prints was not matched by its subscribers; and the logistics of such a massive scheme – distributing prints to over 4000 schools, brought about its collapse. But not before two series had been sufficiently distributed to brighten up the austere 1940’s for a great many schoolchildren.
The most successful survivors from this series were the works of John Nash, L.S.Lowry, Henry Moore and John Tunnard.

Text taken in part from the 1988 Exhibition at Whitford and Hughes Art Gallery, London, “Surrealist Art in Britain”.