Matthew Lanyon’s Private Archive Opens in Falmouth This July

Ten years after his death, the side of Matthew Lanyon that he kept out of public view is finally being unlocked.

The personal archive of the Cornish artist is being opened to the public for the first time, at a two-day festival at Falmouth University’s Woodlane Campus on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th July. The doors are open from 10am to 6pm on both days.

It is called The Archaeology of Tomorrow, 10 Years into the Afterlife, and it is described as a major retrospective taking in his life, work and legacy through exhibitions, workshops, talks and film screenings. The closing event is the announcement of the winners of the first Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize.

Organisers say this is the first exhibition drawn from his personal archive, and that it offers a way of reframing how his legacy is understood.

A complicated relationship with Cornwall

Matthew Lanyon (1951 to 2016) was best known for his later work as a successful abstract painter. The festival sets out to show more than that, with what organisers call unseen material charting a journey through ideas and materials, grief and love.

His work reflected an uneasy relationship with Cornwall and with his own cultural inheritance. He was the son of Peter Lanyon, described as Cornwall’s best known and celebrated artist. Peter died following a gliding accident when Matthew was just 13.

Matthew did not shy away from the harder edges of life in the county. In one of his own reflections, quoted by the festival, he said:

“If you’ve grown up here you have to deal with the problems thrown up with the effects of tourism as an industry – a disneyfication, a picturesque, a cheapening of values and a false glorification of its wonderfulness.”

The Archaeology of Tomorrow is a concept Matthew used in his early work, driven by a search for what matters in our time and all time. The archive going on show includes sculptures, drawings, photographs, poetry, letters, short experimental films and art books.

What’s on across the two days

The programme includes screenings of ‘No Holds Barred, the Life and Art of Matthew Lanyon’, an award winning film made by Barbara Santi and Matthew’s wife, Judith Lanyon, with live question and answer sessions.

There is an open panel discussion covering The Archaeology of Tomorrow, archiving for contemporary artists, and adventures with the archive itself, chaired by Mark Waugh.

The workshops and activities range widely. Geo-archaeologist Simon Timberlake is giving a talk on Ancient Mining in Cornwall that includes a tin smelting demonstration. Young published poet Zelda Cahill-Patten is leading a poetry workshop called ‘A Poem is like a Duck’, using Matthew’s own poems as a starting point. There are art workshops too, plus a chance to talk to Barbara about the realities and challenges of making films in Cornwall.

Tours and talks are being led by the Matthew Lanyon archive team, a group of postgraduates from Courtauld, Exeter and Manchester Metropolitan who worked with the archive during residencies.

The Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize

The festival closes with the announcement of the inaugural Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize winners, with judges and entrants reading the winning poems. Entries came from poets across the UK.

The top prize of £500 goes to the best poem from more than 600 received. There is a further prize of £200, plus the chance to be published in the Guillemot Press online journal, for the best poem from a poet living in or from Cornwall. The prizes have been funded by Falmouth Arts Society and West Cornwall Arts Society.

Judith, one of the three judges, said:

“The theme of this Prize is the Archaeology of Tomorrow and it seems to have opened the floodgates to all the feelings and fears people have about the future, so much tenderness in the poems too, for place and humanity. I wish we could share them all.”

The festival has been sponsored by Zennor Asset Management, the Matthew Lanyon Estate and Falmouth University. Booking and the full programme are available on the festival website.