One day a marvellous man in a highly elaborate tweed coat walked into the gallery. He looked like Groucho Marx. He was as animated as a jazz bandleader, which he turned out to be. He showed us his gouaches, which were as musical as Kandinsky's, as delicate as Klee's, and as gay as Miro's. His colour was exquisite and his construction magnificent. His name was John Tunnard. He asked me very modestly if I thought I could give him a show, and then and there I fixed a date.(1) John Tunnard is an extraordinary figure in 20th Century British art. The influences and inspiration behind his paintings and drawings are derived from the wide range of activities and interests that made up his character. A student of design at the Royal College of Art, he worked throughout the 1920s as a designer for a number of textile manufacturers, only deciding to become a painter at the age of thirty. It was this initial training, however, that was to be important in the development of his own vision and led John Anthony Thwaites to label him in 1946 The Technological Eye.(2) Tunnard's love of modern music is apparent in his interest with rhythm and movement in his work and the regular occurrence of musical notes and symbols. He had played drums for a number of different bands since the 1920s and became a renowned performer of dances based on traditional American Negro styles. Perhaps the most important influence on his work was his move to Cornwall with his wife in 1930. 1. Peggy Guggenheim, Confessions of an Art Addict 2. See Arts Council Exhibition, John Tunnard, Arts Council 1977, pages 47-51.
The Baynard Press for School Prints Ltd., 1947, edition up to 4000
Alan Peat and Brian Whitton, John Tunnard His Life and Works, pages 85-6