Something true and vital: Frank Roper's art and his collaborations with the architect George Pace have left a distinctive mark on the churches of South Wales, from where Jan Gould celebrates his life and work.
South Wales in the first half of the 20th Century was not known for outstanding, modern church architecture or art. It was a deeply church-going area but most of the religious buildings were either medieval, or were erected in the 19th or early 20th Century. Anglican 19th-century churches tended to be Gothic, while Free Church buildings were eclectic, sometimes classical, and sometimes Gothic. There was little innovation. When new council estates were built, such as the Ely estate in Cardiff, churches too were built to meet the needs of the new population, but they tended to be traditional in style, as were the stained glass and sculptures within. My own Church of the Resurrection, in Ely, Cardiff, is a magnificent building in the Byzantine style, built in 1934. It is modelled on the Community of the Resurrection chapel in Mirfield, and built in brick. Its latest restoration, supported by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors in 2018-19, enabled us to replace the church roof, redecorate internally, and to pay particular attention to the work of Frank Roper.Church art and architecture in South Wales changed dramatically in the 1940s, when Glyn Simon, who was Dean of Llandaff Cathedral, and later became Archbishop of Wales, began the restoration of the cathedral, which had been blitzed in the Second World War. After the sudden death of the cathedral architect, Sir Charles Nicholson, Simon chose a young George Pace, who was beginning to establish his reputation as an ecclesiastical architect, well-versed in Gothic architecture and the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as that of Fr Couturier's Art Sacre and the works of Le Corbusier. In that spirit, Pace looked to leading artists of the time to work with him. Some like Stanley Spencer walked away from being involved, but Jacob Epstein and John Piper produced magnificent works for Llandaff Cathedral and when Pace met the young sculptor Frank Roper, who had been a pupil of Henry Moore, they created a partnership that lasted for decades. As well as the work in Llandaff Cathedral, there are examples of Pace and Roper's collaborations all over South Wales, and indeed across England. The devastation of the Second World War gave both men the chance to restore, rebuild but also reshape church architecture and art in South Wales. The Church of the Resurrection was untouched by the war, but a major earlier redecoration in 1969 saw Roper create an altar and screen in a memorial chapel, two sets of candlesticks, a crucifix, and an illuminated cross above the high altar.
Pace was born in 1915, Roper in 1914 and they met in the 1940s. Throughout the 50s and 60s they worked together until Pace died in 1975 after a long illness aged 59. Roper lived on until 2000. He came from Haworth, Yorkshire, where his grandfather had a stone carving business, and studied under Henry Moore at the Royal College of Art. Roper progressed to teach at various colleges of art and in 1947 he came to Cardiff to be Vice Principal of the College of Art just two years before Pace was appointed cathedral architect at Llandaff. Pace said, clearly, he did not want Llandaff Cathedral to be a museum so 'I am gradually bringing together contemporary works' and when the cathedral was finished in 1960, Pace said he could not express strongly enough his debt to the artists who had made it possible. (1)
With enormous skill in modelling and casting, and with great awareness of medieval Welsh culture, Roper created a set of flowers dedicated to Mary in the middle ages, including Gwniadur Mair (Foxglove or Mary's Thimble), and Lustug Fair (Sea Thrift or Mary's Pillow). These are beautiful, delicate pieces and in his obituary in The Guardian Peter Wakelin remarks that 'Roper's bronze panels of Welsh flowers mounted on the medieval reredos of the Lady Chapel (1964) are one of his most touching works.' (2) Roper's art was not usually as delicate, despite its intricacy and subtlety, and Wakelin (later Secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales and Director of Collections & Research at The National Museum of Wales) wrote: 'His figure sculptures are expressively distorted, showing deep sympathy with medieval art, as well as admiration for Henry Moore. His wall-mounted Stations of the Cross, at St Martin's in Cardiff (1959), are emotionally charged, the modelling recalling Grunewald's agony rather than more beatific passion.' Roper replied to his critics: 'Many people have declared that my realism has inspired and excited them. But others have criticised my approach. For instance, some people have complained that I have made Christ's figure too emaciated, with elongated limbs and gaunt joints. But I feel that only in this way could I convey my idea of his emotional and physical suffering.' His Stations of the Cross at St Saviour's, Cardiff evoked similar criticism: some parishioners are quoted as saying that they were 'coarse, weird and ugly' and 'much too modern and strange'. Roper said at the time: 'We have come through a shocking period of art--full of sentimental naturalism. We have to break back into profound realism. We have to show this awful journey to the Cross as something true and vital'. (3)
Pace saw that Roper needed to express something of the agony and pain of the suffering of the 20th Century. Writing of his work at Llandaff, he referred to Pace's suggestion, 'that I should seek inspiration by putting my head into a thorn bush, a painful operation intended to prevent my formalising, or inflicting my conventions on the subject'. (4) On an outside wall, over the front entrance of Pace's Chapel of St Michael's Theological College, Llandaff (1959), added almost 20 years after the chapel was designed, there is an emaciated 'anti-Christ' about to be despatched by St Michael's risen sword. The anti-Christ is an old, haggard man, with claws and wings, a very powerful, almost frightening, work by Roper.
Yet sometimes Roper's figures could speak of tenderness in the midst of passion. In St Denys' Church, Lisvane, there is a reredos of a gentle Christ, 'flanked by four candle holders as if flambeaux made from Passion nails' (5); his beautifully tender nativity figures which he made in aluminium for Wells Cathedral are still used every year; and we have been lucky enough to receive an indefinite loan of three more Roper pieces: statues of Mary and Joseph, and a Christ in Majesty, his face shining out in glory. A similar Majestas in Christ Church, Roath Park Lake, Cardiff, was described by Peter Leech as 'forceful, projecting.' (6)
On 24 February this year Bishop June Osborne came to our church to rededicate the building, and to launch a Frank Roper Centre, with a small exhibition about his work. In her sermon, Bishop June spoke movingly about Roper's understanding of faith, relating it to the scriptural passage read during the service of Genesis 28.15-17, where Jacob is afraid of God's presence. 'God promised Jacob "know that I am with you". Jacob had no evidence for what God had promised him and needed to proceed in faith. Faith that God had been there at his beginning and would be there at his end. So many of Frank Roper's pieces, especially the crucifixions which convey faith in the face of suffering and abandonment, tell us the same. That faith matters.' (7) When church congregations came to look at Roper's works after 1960, his sculptures and stained glass spoke powerfully to them about how faith mattered both to the individuals in the Biblical stories and to Christians today. In many ways Roper stood in the medieval tradition which he appreciated so much, a tradition that used stained glass and sculpture as a teaching aid to people who were often illiterate but who were familiar with a Christian narrative.
Roper's significance for South Wales is overwhelming. Wakelin's obituary describes him as 'a man of entrancing contradictions: a modernist whose work absorbed tradition, deeply conservative but a vivid individualist. His working days were hard and hazardous, but, like Magritte, he dressed at all times in collar and tie.' (8) Throughout the churches and cathedrals of South Wales Roper left a set of works that are a witness to the suffering of the modern world, and the tenderness and beauty of Christ. Our hope in creating a Frank Roper Centre within our church, and eventually a website, is to give due attention to this very modest figure, a man of enormous vision and artistic talent.
Jan Gould is Parish Priest of the Church of the Resurrection, Ely, Cardiff
The church is open every Sunday until 4pm for visitors, or by appointment.
(1.) Peter Pace, The Architecture of George Pace, Batsford, 1990, p. 166.
(2.) Peter Wakelin, 'Frank Roper', December 11, 2000, The Guardian.
(3.) http: //atelim.com/st-peters-church-chippenham-the-harvesting-of-light-the-art-an.html
(4.) Peter Wakelin, The Guardian.
(5.) Peter Leech, The Religious Art of Frank Roper, 2003, p. 5
(6.) Peter Leech, p. 13
(7.) Bishop June Osborne, sermon at the Church of the Resurrection, Ely, 24 February 2019, reprinted with permission.
(8.) Peter Wakelin, The Guardian.
Caption: Frank Roper, Welsh Flowers reredos for Lady Chapel, Llandaff Cathedral, 1964
Caption: Frank Roper Crucifixion for St John the Baptist Cardiff
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| Author: | Gould, Jan |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Art and Christianity |
| Article Type: | Reprint |
| Geographic Code: | 4EUUK |
| Date: | Jun 22, 2019 |
| Words: | 1537 |
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