From the Jerusalem Diary of Eric Gill

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Pilkington doesn’t feel that knowing Gill’s biography spoils our enjoyment of his work: if anything, it only deepens it; and in the coming weeks, she won’t shy away from telling people so. “This is a bit hard to say,” she tells me, in her east London studio, surrounded by body parts and unseeing eyes, “but the thing I feel behind all of Gill’s work is the libidinous drive of being an artist. When he carved his first figure, he wrote down in excited detail what it felt like to breathe life into material. It was sexual and intimate and God-like, this making of things that could be living, breathing bodies.” She rubs the tips of her fingers together. “That complete obsession: it’s what draws us to Gill, whether we like it or not.” While the pictures weren’t pornographic in the classic sense, they were definitely kinky. One in particular showed a large-breasted girl forced into a cleavage-revealing corset. Another showed the same girl with her breasts exposed, weeping in fear. When the new sketches were finally exhibited in 2013, the curators said they showed a darker, obsessional side to Lowry. I would propose a contemporary author revises the books and Davey's authorship is removed, as that may be more respectful to the survivors of his abuse, and means that the valuable work is not lost.

There are those who would defend Davey's books. Teachers who value the texts explain their position on internet forums. Essentially, the books are useful and contain nothing untoward - it's only the association with Davey that casts a shadow over the content. In the period 1930–31, Gill designed the typeface Joanna which he used to hand-set his book, An Essay on Typography and other typefaces followed. Aries, Floriated Capitals, Bunyan, Jubilee. The furore continued into Thursday as the debate developed into an art vs life dynamic on social media. Gill had his first sculpture exhibition in 1911 at the Chenil Gallery in London. [9] Eight works by Gill were included in the Second Post-Impressionism Exhibition organised by Roger Fry at the Grafton Galleries in London during 1912 and 1913. [13] But will they? Isn’t the risk that the museum will henceforth forever be associated in the public mind with one deeply alienating part of the life of the artist most central to its collections?Meanwhile, even as the deadline for putting the exhibition together approaches, Hepburn continues to consider precisely what else will appear. The problem is that he would like to include some more explicit images of pairs of ecstatic lovers in which the men depicted have erections. “They show happy, sensual, consensual relationships, and to exclude them would, I think, skew the visitor’s understanding of Gill. But this is about understanding our legal position. To include them might mean we have to put some kind of age requirement in place, and we would prefer not to have one. An age requirement would imply that all of the content is inappropriate for children to see, and that isn’t the case at all. These are some of the most remarkable drawings and engravings in British art.” His hope is that these pictures can be shown in a separate, screened-off area, and that the rest of the show can therefore be open to allcomers. 'Museums have a duty to talk about difficult issues,' says the curator. 'They are a place where society can think'

Wooden doll, carved by Eric Gill for his daughter Petra, 1910. Photograph: Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft With this in mind, Hepburn’s decision to mount Eric Gill: The Body might be thought rather brave – and certainly this is the word I hear repeatedly from those who support his project. “My overriding sense is that this is quite brave,” says Alistair Brown, a policy officer at the Museums Association. “It’s a test case.” But still, I wonder. Is it courageous, or is it merely foolhardy? And what consequences will it have in the longer run both for Gill’s work and those institutions that are its guardians? Is it possible that Hepburn, in fighting his own museum’s “self-censorship”, will start a ripple effect that ultimately will see more censorship elsewhere, rather than less? And once Gill is dispensed with, where do we go next? Where does this leave, say, artists such as Balthus and Hans Bellmer? Even if their private lives were less reprehensible than Gill’s, their work – that of Balthus betrays a fixation on young girls, while Bellmer is best known for his lifesize pubescent dolls – is surely far more unsettling. Since the book was published in 1989 his reputation has in fact increased. The [campaigners'] attitude was probably in the minority."Born in Steyning, Gill's breathtaking sculptures adorn Westminster Cathedral, the BBC’s Broadcasting House and the United Nations Headquarters. His lettering projects are monumental as well. A number of professional craft workers joined the community, such that by the early 1920s the community had grown to 41 people, occupying several houses in the 20 acres surrounding the Guild's chapel and workshops. [2] :148 Notable visitors to the Common included G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, whose Distributist ideas the Guild followed. [14] Some young men who had been in combat in World War I came to stay for longer periods. These included Denis Tegetmeier, Reginald Lawson and the artist and poet David Jones, who was to become engaged for a time to Gill's second daughter, Petra. [2] :151

Gill's religious beliefs did not limit his sexual activity, which included several extramarital affairs. His religious views contrast with his deviant sexual behaviour, including, as described in his personal diaries, the sexual abuse of his daughters, an incestuous relationship with at least one of his sisters and also sexual experiments with a dog. Since these revelations became public in 1989, there have been a number of calls for works by Gill to be removed from public buildings and art collections. Arthur Eric Rowton Gill ARA RDI (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsman of the twentieth century: a letter-cutter and type designer of genius", he is also a figure of considerable controversy following the revelations of his sexual abuse of two of his daughters and of his pet dog. In 1935, Gill was elected an Honorary Associate of the Institute of British Architects and in 1937 was made a Royal Designer for Industry, the highest British award for designers, by the Royal Society of Arts, and became a founder-member of the RSA's Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry when it was established in 1938. [2] :271 In April 1937, Gill was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy. Quite why Gill was offered, let alone accepted, these honours from institutions he had openly reviled throughout his career is unclear. [1] Final works, 1939–1940 [ edit ] St Peter the Apostle at Gorleston-on-Sea, (1938–9) Altar of the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, Westminster Cathedral Even before the Leeds memorial controversy, Gill's series of illustrations that included the Nuptials of God, The Convert and Divine Lovers and his views on the sexual nature of Christianity were causing alarm within the Roman Catholic hierarchy and distancing Gill from other members of the Ditchling community. [2] :164 The series of life-drawings and prints of his daughters, including Girl in Bath and Hair Combing done at Ditchling, were considered among Gill's finest works. The sexual abuse Gill was perpetrating on his two eldest daughters during the same period only became known after his death. [4]Gill's 1935 essay All Art is Propaganda marked a complete reversal of his previous belief that artists should not concern themselves with political activity. [2] :272 He became a supporter of social credit and later moved towards a socialist position. [36] In 1934, Gill contributed art to an exhibition mounted by the left-wing Artists' International Association, and defended the exhibition against accusations in The Catholic Herald that its art was "anti-Christian". [37] Gill became a regular speaker at left-wing meetings and rallies throughout the second half of the 1930s. [2] :273 He was adamantly opposed to fascism, and was one of the few Catholics in Britain to openly support the Spanish Republicans. [36] Gill became a pacifist and helped set up the Catholic peace organisation Pax with E. I. Watkin and Donald Attwater. [38] Later, Gill joined the Peace Pledge Union and supported the British branch of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. [36] The Creation of Man, 1938 The family Gill Facia was created by Colin Banks as an emulation of Gill's stone carving designs, with separate styles for smaller and larger text. [68]

Gill was commissioned to develop a typeface with the number of allographs limited to what could be used on Monotype systems or Linotype machines. The typeface was loosely based on the Arabic Naskh style but was considered unacceptably far from the norms of Arabic script. It was rejected and never cut into type. [69] [70] [71] Published works [ edit ] Illustration from the book The Devil's devices, or, Control versus Service by Hilary Pepler, 1915 Clothes: An Essay Upon the Nature and Significance of the Natural and Artificial Integuments Worn by Men and Women, 1931 [73] As someone who carries out investigations of computers belonging to suspected paedophiles with a view to gathering evidence where it is available, I would challenge Alext, Ian B and any others like them to continue holding the view they do after having been forced to actually see with their own eyes the utterly revolting acts that these kind of filth perpetuate and get a thrill from viewing - I find it hard to believe that anyone, having seen this kind of material, could want anything less than complete erasure from existance of anything linked to individuals that commit such abhorrent acts. Gill was made a Royal Designer for Industry, the highest British award for designers, by the Royal Society of Arts; and he was a founder-member of the newly established Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry. He died from lung cancer (he had been an inveterate smoker) on 17 November 1940. Further information can be found from Wikipedia, Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft or The National Archives. As for bringing poets persecuted for their sexuality into the debate - sorry, how is this in any way relevant? Homosexual poets from ages gone by were persecuted due to the ignorance of the time - I pray that there will never be a time when sexually abusing defenceless children is deemed acceptable. Comparing the two situations is a huge insult to all non heterosexuals accross the world is it not?

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But far and beyond his artistry Gill was a paedophile who abused his daughters, their maid, had sex with his sisters and even his dog, Gill would be in prison today. His sculpture, which depicts Ariel and Prospero from Shakespeare's late play “The Tempest,” sits above the front entrance to the BBC's Broadcasting House headquarters in central London.