Studio: international art (79.1920)

THE STUDIO

THE BIRMINGHAM GROUP:
ARTHUR J. GASKIN AND JOSEPH
SOUTHALL. 0000

THE development of the Birmingham
group of artists has been so linked
with the Birmingham School of Art that
it is impossible to dissociate them. Southall
is the only one of the group who was not
directly under the school’s influence : but
his long friendship with Gaskin brought
him into the same circle. 000
It is more than thirty years since the
appointment of Mr. Taylor as head master
inaugurated a new chapter in the school’s
history. The result was a break with the
traditions of South Kensington, and a
degree of initiative which brought the

school into the front rank. Gaskin was the
leader of the innovators. First as a bril-
liant student, then as teacher, then as or-
ganizer of the classes which were to develop
into the Jewellers’ School, of which he is
the head : his personality was a dominant
factor in the school’s progress. 0 0

At this time Birmingham was strongly
influenced by the work of its famous towns-
man, Burne-Jones, who found time to visit
the School of Art fairly frequently, and
was personally known to the senior students
and the staff. He emphasized the teaching
of Ruskin and Morris ; and it was in such
an atmosphere that Gaskin developed. 0
Alongside his work of teaching, the im-
pulse to create was always active in Gaskin.
He won his first considerable recognition

LXXIX. No. 324.—March 1920

-7/P />/? V

“burford.” from a pastel

BY ARTHUR J. GASKIN

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