Lionel de Sausmarez

Maurice de Sausmarez (20 October 1915 – 28 October 1969) was an artist, writer and art educator. He played an important role in the establishment of the University of Leeds Department of Fine Art and was Principal of the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting from 1962 to 1969. His influential book Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form reached a wide international audience and remains in print.

Early life Born Lionel Maurice de Sausmarez on 20 October 1915 in Sydney, Australia, de Sausmarez was the youngest of two children born to British parents Clarence Montgomery 'Monty' de Sausmarez, a marine engineer in the Merchant Service, and Jessie Rose Macdonald (née Bamford), a piano teacher and widow of the explorer G.A. Macdonald. In 1916 the family moved to Grenada, West Indies. In 1918 de Sausmarez's father Monty disappeared while swimming and was presumed to have been killed by a shark. In 1923, Jessie moved back to England with Maurice, his older brother George was already at school there. They married in 1963 and had three children (Emma Louise, Simon Benedict and Daniel Maurice). The couple were together until de Sausmarez's death in 1969. De Sausmarez returned to work in 1958 with the university making arrangements for his gradual return, including the use of a studio on campus in Beech Grove Terrace. In the summer of 1969, while in France, de Sausmarez was taken ill and returned to England. He died on 28 October at the age of 54, at London Heart Hospital.

World War II De Sausmarez's application as a conscientious objector, on Christian grounds, went before a tribunal in Leeds in 1940. It was declined, and he was placed on a Special Register for Non-Combatant Service. He failed the Armed Services medical exam so continued to work as a teacher, being called on occasionally to work as a civilian instructor for the Army Educational Corps and carrying out fire picket duties at night. He served on AIA committees and contributed to the association's post-war work to promote the importance of art through travelling exhibitions, affordable prints and a scheme creating murals in schools, libraries and hospitals. He campaigned for individual creativity and expression, believing that the arts play a vital role in society. In 1963 his article 'Diploma Daze' de Sausmarez spoke out against the cuts to diploma courses made by the Summerson Committee. As an advocate for practical, vocational education he emphasised its importance in training successful artists and designers. In June 1968 he spoke at the Department of Education and Science Conference for Art Advisors at Dartington Hall. His talk Innovation and Continuity in Art Education was influential and well received.

De Sausmarez's first teaching position was as Art Master at King Edward VII Grammar School, Sheffield, in November 1939. He resigned from full-time teaching in 1941 due to ill health but later took up a part-time teaching position at Willesden Polytechnic School of Art. Returning to his old school made de Sausmarez question the prescriptive, traditional curriculum. He became committed to developing a more open-ended, experimental education for his students, exposing them to dance, theatre and music, as well as the visual arts. In 1950 he was appointed as lecturer of fine art at the University of Leeds, his application for the position was supported by fellow artists Percy Horton, Gilbert Spencer and William Coldstream. He held various positions including Governor of both Leeds College of Art and Harrogate School of Art, Chief Examiner of Leeds University Institute of Education and was a member of the University Senate. The Makerere College School of Art had been set up in 1937 by Slade alumna Margaret Trowell and was affiliated with the University of London. In collaboration with Trowell, de Sausmarez advised on the development of the school and the forming of a new Diploma course. and later at North Riding College. De Sausmarez taught the Summer School alongside colleagues, including fellow RCA graduate, artist and educator Harry Thubron. The two main principles of the movement were a reasoned and objective approach to teaching and the importance of embracing science, technology and the modern world. In 1956 de Sausmarez, Thubron and Hudson contributed to a pivotal Society for Education through Art conference at which de Sausmarez argued that in art theory there existed "a thinly disguised conspiracy against intelligence, resulting from the arbitrary splitting of consciousness and intellect as though they were mutually exclusive instead of inseparable [and that] the denigration of intelligence has serious consequences in art education".

De Sausmarez's approach to 'Basic Design' education focused on fostering a curiosity and inquisitiveness in students. His aim was to create rational, objective teaching that supported emotional and intellectual development; a philosophy he developed with colleague and fellow artist Peter Green while teaching at Hornsey College of Art. De Sausmarez's book on these principles, Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form, was published in 1964 and remains in print.

De Sausmarez's close colleague Harry Thubron developed his Basic Design Course partly at the North Riding Summer Schools they taught together in Scarborough.

In 1963 Thubron taught a ten-day winter school course in life drawing at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting alongside de Sausmarez, sculptor Hubert Dalwood and abstract artist Terry Frost. The experimental course was attended by approximately 70 painters and students and involved laying large sheets of paper on the floor, the students working closely together and several life models moving around the crowded space. It aimed to "destroy habitual practices" and "encourage creative response". The course was documented by painter and filmmaker John Jones, the resulting 30 minute film Drawing with the Figure (1963) includes commentary by Thubron and a soundtrack of improvised jazz.

The designer and inventor James Dyson studied at Byam Shaw, choosing the school because of its excellent reputation under de Sausmarez's leadership. Dyson credits de Sausmarez's guidance and teaching with inspiring him to become a designer.

Broadcasting De Sausmarez provided art education to schools and the wider public through BBC radio programmes such as Art in the North: 'The Future''' broadcast in 1951 and Dissipated Octupuses (1959), a programme about the teaching of art to adolescents. He contributed to the Talks for Sixth Forms radio programme, presenting episodes on Artist and Public in 1960 and Paul Cézanne in 1965. The latter was accompanied by a film strip of photographs of Cézanne's work selected by de Sausmarez.

He contributed to discussions on art and art education through BBC radio programmes such as What Kind of Art Schools (1958) and The Fifty-One Society, and the ATV careers programme I am going to work in a creative job shown in October 1962.

De Sausmarez wrote regularly for Motif: A Journal of the Visual Arts, edited by designer Ruari McLean. He contributed several articles on art education including Playing it Safe? about the lack of intellectual development in students entering art schools published in Motif 4 (March 1960) and an editorial about the new Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD) in Motif 7 (1961). He wrote about the work of Hubert Dalwood, John Warren-Davis, Trevor Bates and John Hoskin in the Motif 5 (Autumn 1960) article Four abstract sculptors, and about the sculptors, and former assistants to Henry Moore, Oliffe Richmond, Neil Stocker, Clive Sheppard and Anthony Hatwell in the article Four British Sculptors published in Motif 12 (Winter 1964).

Art and design De Sausmarez was a skilled painter, illustrator and designer. He drew influence from Paul Cézanne, Jacques Villon and Nicolas Poussin, and had a love of abstract art and a gift for close observation which can be seen in many of his landscapes and still lifes. In 1935 he exhibited for the first time with the Artists' International Association (AIA) and in 1937, Bromley Little Theatre commissioned him to design costumes and sets for their production of Elroy Flecker's Hassan.

De Sausmarez's later work is dominated by landscapes, particularly of France and Italy where he spent many summers painting and scrutinising his surroundings. Tuscan Summer (1955) demonstrates his use of abstract technique to represent a closely observed, pared back landscape. The Luberon Valley in France featured in his landscape paintings after he bought a house there in 1962. His work was included in many New English Art Club (NEAC) annual exhibitions between 1939 and 1961, and posthumously in 1970. De Sausmarez's work was included in associated touring exhibitions for both the RA and NEAC shows.

Several of de Sausmarez's paintings were shown and sold at Pictures for Schools exhibitions, a Society for Education through Art (SEA) scheme founded in 1947 by artist and educationalist Nan Youngman. The aim of the scheme was to enrich the visual education of children through first-hand contact with original artworks within their schools. The exhibitions took place annually in London and displayed works by contemporary British artists for sale to educational buyers and local authorities. De Sausmarez served on the exhibition selection committee in the1960s.

His landscape painting Country Lane was bought by the National Art Gallery of New Zealand in 1958. In 1960, de Sausmarez offered artist John Hoyland his first teaching position at Hornsey College of Art after discovering a pile of Hoyland's abstract paintings at the Royal Academy. He became her friend and mentor, introducing her to Futurism and Divisionism, and inspiring her to look closer at artists such as Klee and Seurat. Riley's introduction to Futurist painting involved discussions and analyses with de Sausmarez while he was preparing a series of lectures for the Royal College of Art. and spent the summer of 1960 together painting in Italy where they visited the Venice Biennale. De Sausmarez also interviewed fellow artists Naum Gabo and Henry Moore about Nicholson and his work. In 1971, the exhibition Homage to Maurice de Sausmarez was organised by students at Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting as a tribute.

1971 saw the first Maurice de Sausmarez Memorial Lecture, organised by the Council of Management of the Byam Shaw School. The first lecture, The Art Lesson, was given by Professor Richard Wollheim. The lectures continued annually until 1990 and speakers included Germaine Greer, Melvyn Bragg art historian Professor Griselda Pollock and Basic Design advocate Richard Hamilton.

De Sausmarez's archive is held by the University of Leeds Special Collections, having been acquired from the Maurice de Sausmarez Family Trust in 2019.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 1949: Paintings by Maurice de Sausmarez, Paul Alexander Gallery, London 1951: Paintings by Maurice de Sausmarez, The Haworth Gallery, Wakefield 1971: Homage to Maurice de Sausmarez, Upper Grosvenor Galleries, London (posthumous) 2015: Maurice de Sausmarez 1915–1969, The Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds (posthumous)

Selected group exhibitions Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: 1947–48, 1950–55, 1957, 1959, 1962–69, and 1970 (posthumous) New English Art Club Annual Exhibition: 1938, 1939, 1940, 1942–55, 1947, 1950–52, 1961, and 1970 (posthumous) 1935: Artists International Association: Artists against Fascism & War, 28 Soho Square London 1936: Exhibition of 15 Students' Sketch Clubs, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 1936: De Olympiade Onder Dictatuur, Amsterdam 1937: AIA: Artists against Fascism & War, 28 Soho Square, London 1938: Students' Group Exhibition, Royal College of Art, London 1939: AIA: Unity for Artists of Peace, Democracy, and Cultural Development, Whitechapel Gallery, London 1942: Scheme for Recording the Changing Face of Britain, National Gallery, London 1946: AIA: Painters Today, 56 Pall Mall, London 1953: Yorkshire Artists' Exhibition, Leeds City Art Gallery 1953: Figures in their Setting, Tate Gallery, London 1955: Self Portraits of Contemporary Painters, Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-Upon-Hull 1956: Maurice de Sausmarez, Terry Frost and Hubert Dalwood, Leeds University 1956: The Seasons, Tate Gallery, London 1967: Contemporary British Landscape Painters, Upper Grosvenor Galleries, London 1969: The Nude, New Grafton Gallery, London

Selected publications Look This Way, An Introduction to Paintings (1945) Playing it Safe?, Motif: A Journal of the Visual Arts, 4 (March 1960) Four abstract sculptors, Motif: A Journal of the Visual Arts, 5 (Autumn 1960) Gestation of a Diploma, Motif: A Journal of the Visual Arts 7 (Summer 1961) Diploma Daze, The Guardian (27 June 1963) Basic Design: The Dynamics of Visual Form (1964) Four British Sculptors, Motif: A Journal of the Visual Arts, 12 (Winter 1964) Nicholas Poussin's 'Orpheus and Eurydice' (1969) Ben Nicholson: A Studio International Special (1969) Bridget Riley (1970) Discussion between Peter Sedgely and Maurice de Sausmarez,'' Leonardo Vol. 4 Spring 1971