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Charles Lutyens

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For the English soldier and painter (1829–1915), see Charles Augustus Henry Lutyens.
Charles Lutyens
Photograph of Charles Lutyens
Photograph of Charles Lutyens
Born1933
London, England
DiedApril 2021 (age 87)
NationalityBritish
EducationBryanston School
Alma materChelsea School of Art
Slade School of Fine Art
Saint Martin's School of Art
Known forMosaic; oil painting; sculpture
Notable workAngels of the Heavenly Host (1963–68)
The Outraged Christ (2011)
StyleFigurative art
Spouses
Ariane Laparra
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1961)​
Marianna Lutyens
​
(m. 1970)​
Children4 children
Parents
  • Ernest Lutyens (father)
  • Naomi (nee Harben) Lutyens (mother)
RelativesEdwin Lutyens (great uncle)
Patron(s)St Paul's, Bow Common
Liverpool Cathedral
Websitecharleslutyens.co.uk

Charles Lutyens (1933–2021) was an English artist and art therapist.[1][2]

Lutyens was born in London, England. His father was Ernest Lutyens, an officer in the Coldstream Guards, and his mother was Naomi Lutyens, who was a publicity officer at the Old Vic Theatre in south London.[1] Lutyens was educated at Bryanston School in Dorset, where he decided to become an artist. He then studied art at the Chelsea School of Art, Slade School of Fine Art, and Saint Martin's School of Art in London, where he studied oil painting and sculpture. Subsequently, at the age of 24, he studied in Paris under the cubist painter André Lhote.[3] He worked mainly using oil paint, but also mosaic and sculpture using clay, stone, and wood. After his studies, in 1958, Lutyens joined the "Fabyc" ("Families by Choice"[4]) community, a kibbutz-style group of people living in London, with his studio in Fulham.[1]

General view
Interior view of St Paul's, Bow Common, including Lutyens' Angels of the Heavenly Host mosaic mural around the walls above the pillars
Detail of mosaic
Detail of an angel in the Angels of the Heavenly Host mosaic

He worked on a large 800 square-foot mosaic mural, Angels of the Heavenly Host,[5] during 1963–68, at the newly consecrated St Paul's Church, Bow.[6][7][8] This was undertaken in collaboration with the church's architect Robert Maguire.[9] The mosaic used tesserae consisting of 700 different colours sourced by Lutyens from the island of Murano, near Venice and known for its glass-making.[1] It is probably the largest contemporary mosaic in Britain and the largest created by one person.[3]

Lutyens moved away from the Fabyc community in London to Oxford in 1978.[1] Having trained for a diploma in art therapy at the Hertfordshire College of Art and Design in St Alban's, he worked as an art therapist at Oxford's Radcliffe Hospital, the Littlemore Hospital, and Harlow House in High Wycombe.

The Outraged Christ sculpture in Liverpool Cathedral

His 15-foot wooden, iron, and steel crucifixion sculpture The Outraged Christ[8] of 2011 was exhibited at St Paul's in Bow,[10] then at Gloucester Cathedral, and finally more permanently at Liverpool Cathedral in the Derby Transept.[11]

He had a studio in Charlton-on-Otmoor, a village in Oxfordshire. He exhibited in joint and individual exhibitions, for example at the Hollerhaus Gallery in Munich (Germany), St Martin's Gallery in London,[12] and the Wildenstein Gallery in New York.[1] His work is held in private collections in France, Germany, Republic of Ireland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, and Zimbabwe. In 2024, a retrospective exhibition of Lutyens' oil paintings in the context of his work as an art therapist, A World Apart: The Work of Charles Lutyens, was held at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind[13] in Beckenham, southeast London.[14][15][16][17]

Lutyens was married twice, first to Ariane Laparra (1958–61) and later to Marianna Rothauer-Ennser (1970–2021).[1] He had two children from each marriage.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Lutyens, Marianna (11 July 2021). "Charles Lutyens obituary". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Lutyens, Marianna (Winter 2022). "Artist Charles Lutyens Remembered" (PDF). The Lutyens Trust – Newsletter. UK: The Lutyens Trust. pp. 9–10. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b Ross, Duncan (2015). "The present church of St. Paul's, Bow Common" (PDF). cloudfront.net. pp. 86–151. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  4. ^ Kuester-Ginsberg, Catherine (1972). "How One's Choice (of a Way of Life) may Become a Repressive Authority". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 20 (3/4). Living together – Therapeutic and Social Aspects: Proceedings of the 8th International Congress of Psychotherapy, Milan, August 25–29, 1970, Part II: 96–101. JSTOR 45114226. PMID 5080518.
  5. ^ "Charles Lutyens: Angels of the Heavenly Host". Art+Christianity. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  6. ^ Murray, Keith (Spring 1990). "Introduction to Lutyens' Mosaic". Churchbuilding. London.
  7. ^ Lutyens, Charles (2012). "Angels of the Heavenly Host". Journal of the British Association for Modern Mosaic (BAMM). 6.
  8. ^ a b "Crucifixiones de Charles Lutyens" [Crucifixions of Charles Lutyens]. Ersilias (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  9. ^ Adler, Gerry (12 February 2019). "Obituary: Robert Maguire (1931–2019)". Architects' Journal.
  10. ^ Lutyens, Marianna (2011). "Charles Lutyens Exhibition – "Being in the World"". UK: The Lutyens Trust. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  11. ^ "The Outraged Christ by Charles Lutyens". Art In The Cathedral. UK: Liverpool Cathedral. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  12. ^ "Paintings by Charles Lutyens: 18th June – 30th June". London: St. Martin's Gallery. 1962. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  13. ^ "A World Apart: the Work of Charles Lutyens: Observations of an art therapist". Exhibitions. UK: Bethlem Museum of the Mind. 8 June 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  14. ^ "Artist's work in psychiatric hospitals on show". BBC News. UK: BBC. 4 May 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  15. ^ Smallman, Etan (6 June 2024). "The visionary who gave dignity to the mentally ill: A new exhibition at Bethlem's Museum of the Mind reveals how Charles Lutyens became the trailblazer for art therapy". The Telegraph. UK. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  16. ^ Noble, Will (3 June 2024). "This Psychiatric Hospital Art Gallery Has A Striking New Exhibition On The Way". Londonist. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  17. ^ Mansfield, Ian (11 June 2024). "Capturing the human psyche: Charles Lutyens' paintings at Bethlem Museum of the Mind". ianVisits. UK. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
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