Goldmark 36, 2025

The south of France has a peculiar hold on our Spring issue. For Graham Sutherland and Anthony Gross – near contemporaries, and both fascinated with the changeable character of their favoured landscapes – it offered not just inspiration but a place to live in the years following the war. Gross’ Lot Valley is brought to life in his own love letter to the region, while Sutherland expert Sally Moss explores the artist’s complicated relationship with his modernist home in Menton. The brilliant blue of the Côte d’Azur provides our colour column, seen through the equally complicated years Picasso led at the Villa Californie in Cannes. And in the delicate new textures of Akiko Hirai’s pots and the graphic work of the Geometry of Fear sculptors, we find two very different perceptions of life, nature, and the human body at play. Lots to explore, I hope, in this latest magazine. Mike Goldmark

CONTRIBUTORS

Sally Moss is a curator, interpreter and lecturer with a reputation for innovation and infectious enthusiasm. Experience in Fine Art, Animation and Education led to work in museums (including the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery; Carmarthen Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales) where she has been commissioned to breathe new life into projects, including the National Wool Museum, nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award. She lectures on Sutherland, Art & Industry, Textiles and Art Education. Currently Vice Chair of the Oriel Myrddin Trust and founding trustee of the Tywi Gate Way Trust, she was a past adviser to the UK Museums & Galleries Commission and Arts Council Wales. She is married to the sculptor Roger Moss.

Helen Ritchie is Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Applied Arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Named among Apollo magazine’s top ‘40 under 40’ working in the world of craft in 2024, she balances her curatorial duties with part-time doctoral study in the Department of History of Art at the University of Cambridge, researching the ceramics of Katharine Pleydell-Bouverie and Norah Braden. She has curated and contributed to numerous exhibitions including Magdalene Odundo in Cambridge (2021-22) and Things of Beauty Growing: British Studio Pottery in partnership with Yale Center for British Art (2018). Helen is also a Trustee of the North West Essex Collection Trust (on display at the Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden) and a member of Clare Hall’s Ceramics Management Board.

Mary Alexander is an art historian and lecturer with a life-long fascination and specialist background in dress and design. Having worked as an examiner for Christie’s Education and in Pentagram Design (London and New York) she is now a freelance lecturer. An expert in the work of Raoul Dufy, she has recently lectured on his work in Paris.