“This portrait was painted by Royal Academician Tom Phillips, who was Brian Eno’s tutor at Ipswich Art School in 1964. The fact that the painting was completed some 20 years later shows that the two men made a very close and long-term connection.
They first met when Phillips was attracted to teach art in Ipswich – which he described as a sleepy little place – by the experimental courses run by the head of department, Roy Ascott.
Phillips quickly picked out the young student Eno, predicting he’d go on to greater things. Phillips had a profound influence on his protégé’s career, not least by introducing him to the kind of avant-garde music that would inform his later output as an ‘ambient’ musician and in-demand producer.
Something of a poet and musician himself, Phillips is also well known for A Humument, an illustrated ‘treated’ novel he created by applying collages to the pages of a little-known Victorian book. The work gained a fanatical cult following and selections from it formed the opera IRMA, which Eno recorded in 1978.
As well as turning Eno on to the likes of John Cage, Phillips joined him for games of what they called ‘piano tennis’, in which they hurled balls at the wires of stripped pianos lined up in the hall.
I think that was pretty typical of the Ipswich approach. Students were encouraged to think about their art via a series of ‘happenings’. One of our exhibition designers was a student at the same time as Eno and she’s always telling us stories of how they’d be encouraged to go off and make fi lms or indulge in a giant game of Twister.
The art school was a hotbed of creativity at the time. Maggi Hambling was also a student and visiting lecturers included the likes of artist and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi. Indeed, some of the sculpture staff went on to work with Henry Moore.
Our exhibition tells the story of what was stirring deep in the heart of Suffolk and it’s complemented by a rotating collection of current work by tutors and students from Suffolk New College and University Campus, which provides an intriguing mix of the past and the present.
This show is also a fundraising project to help us buy the old building. The art school was founded in 1859 and fi nally closed its doors in 1997. Our lease runs until next March and the aim is to purchase it and provide a new permanent gallery space for Ipswich and beyond.”
Emma Roodhouse is curator of art at Colchester and Ipswich Museums.The Class Of… runs at Ipswich Art School until 12 June
They first met when Phillips was attracted to teach art in Ipswich – which he described as a sleepy little place – by the experimental courses run by the head of department, Roy Ascott.
Phillips quickly picked out the young student Eno, predicting he’d go on to greater things. Phillips had a profound influence on his protégé’s career, not least by introducing him to the kind of avant-garde music that would inform his later output as an ‘ambient’ musician and in-demand producer.
Something of a poet and musician himself, Phillips is also well known for A Humument, an illustrated ‘treated’ novel he created by applying collages to the pages of a little-known Victorian book. The work gained a fanatical cult following and selections from it formed the opera IRMA, which Eno recorded in 1978.
As well as turning Eno on to the likes of John Cage, Phillips joined him for games of what they called ‘piano tennis’, in which they hurled balls at the wires of stripped pianos lined up in the hall.
I think that was pretty typical of the Ipswich approach. Students were encouraged to think about their art via a series of ‘happenings’. One of our exhibition designers was a student at the same time as Eno and she’s always telling us stories of how they’d be encouraged to go off and make fi lms or indulge in a giant game of Twister.
The art school was a hotbed of creativity at the time. Maggi Hambling was also a student and visiting lecturers included the likes of artist and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi. Indeed, some of the sculpture staff went on to work with Henry Moore.
Our exhibition tells the story of what was stirring deep in the heart of Suffolk and it’s complemented by a rotating collection of current work by tutors and students from Suffolk New College and University Campus, which provides an intriguing mix of the past and the present.
This show is also a fundraising project to help us buy the old building. The art school was founded in 1859 and fi nally closed its doors in 1997. Our lease runs until next March and the aim is to purchase it and provide a new permanent gallery space for Ipswich and beyond.”
Emma Roodhouse is curator of art at Colchester and Ipswich Museums.The Class Of… runs at Ipswich Art School until 12 June