Gerald Moore: Life, Work and Others

After months of building work and years of planning, the Gerald Moore Gallery is finally a reality. I, as a student, have seen much change in my time: the new Junior School, the Music School, the Triangle, the extension to King George’s Hall and the removal of the Tuck Shop. All of which have had, to some degree, an effect on my life at Eltham College. Will the Gerald Moore Gallery be the same? Well, sadly not. Having only roughly three weeks left of my Eltham College career, this addition will not change things for me greatly, however, if utilised to its full potential, it could have an impact as large as the Eric Liddell Sports Centre.

The opening itself was a rather subdued affair, all things considered. Crowded into the ground floor gallery with its fantastic air conditioning system, we listened to Mr Henderson’s insightful speech on the life and works of a man who appears to be a bit of a maverick, and a short but humorous tribute from the sculptor Michael Sandle. From then on, those in attendance were given the freedom to explore the gallery and admire the artwork on show. With such a wide variety of styles on show, I found it difficult to maintain my train of thought on the separate pieces, constantly being drawn away by the others exhibited. In Mr Moore’s authoritative work I could see echoes of Hieronymous Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and the dreamlike quality of Salvador Dali’s work. However, it would take someone with the descriptive powers of Waldemar Januszczak to do justice to this eclectic body of work which is presently gracing the walls of the Gerald Moore Gallery.

The two galleries offer entirely different spaces for the art to be viewed, with the dark, almost cramped ground floor gallery and the spacious, very bright first floor gallery. The exhibition accompanied by an audio-guide which provides disarmingly innocent descriptions of these pieces of art by children from the Junior School, a far cry from the analysis offered by Mr Sandle. One Year 3 child had clearly felt the art was secondary to his description, as he amusingly suggested that “you enjoyed his beautiful voice”. Much credit must be given to Ms Goodeve, who has clearly worked extremely hard in creating these audio-guides, to ensure that the opening days of the Gerald Moore Gallery are as memorable as possible.

As a student who won’t be able to truly experience what effect the new gallery will have on the school, I would appeal to all students to explore the new possibilities which both spaces offer. If anything, I imagine this will make the prospect of doing art to GCSE and higher an even more attractive prospect due to the fact that their creations can now be shown in a ‘professional’ environment.

Tom Edwards