Andrew Kay: Guilty treasures

A Sunday drive to Farley Farm

I have lived in Brighton for about thirty years now. That’s longer than I have lived anywhere else – ever. I left Lancashire when I was 18 (I say Lancashire but it was officially Merseyside by that point, a fact that some of us bitterly resented), never to return except for an occasional visit.
I moved to London to study and then to work and finally came here when I had tired of the city and wanted to have a different kind of home life.
I many ways Brighton has given me that and I have embraced the city and the county. Unlike many real locals I have visited the Royal Pavilion on many occasions, walked on the downs, traveled to Petworth and Charleston, visited the Towner and so on…
On Sunday though Mr C and Dr C asked me if I was free to join them in seeing an exhibition by local photographer Tony Tree. I was free and accepted their kind offer and off we set to Farley Farm.
The exhibition was very good indeed, Tony Trees images are a stunning record of past events, social history, wars, fashion and entertainment. He calls himself a jobbing photographer, well Tony, you do a very fine job!
Here though I hang my head in shame and guilt, Farley Farm, I knew nothing of it. This is crazy because deep in my memory I must have some past knowledge because this was the home of Roland Penrose, surrealist and art historian and his wife Lee Miller.
Of course I knew of both of them, I did go to art school so it would be unlikely that I had not as they were such key players in the world of 20th century arts.

We decided to take the tour of the farmhouse and here the excellent guide Kate filled in the rest. It is the most fascinating place with none of the feel of a gallery and very much the feel of a home still lived in, and indeed the home still belongs to the family although now it is used to house the offices and archives and photo labs of the trust.
They had a housekeeper who was loathe to throw anything away, a gift for anyone creating an exhibit like this so for the most part the house is very much as they lived in it, right down to the kitchen. There Lee Miller would cook with a passion and to prove it Kate pointed out that there were devices that we would never think existed or that one might need. Pop into my kitchen Kate and I think I might share a passion with Lee Miller.
Penrose had of course collected a massive number of great works by important artists and although some remain many are now loaned to major art institutions around the world. The place is sprinkled through with treasures, not least by Picasso, a lifetime friend of the family and visitor to the farm. There is, we heard, a visitors book that reads like a who’s who of twentieth century art, but it is too fragile to be on display sadly.
The dining room is hung with a large collection of Roland Penrose paintings and many illuminate his relationships with his first wife and later with Lee Miller who he met in Paris.

Lee Miller’s iconic images are everywhere to be seen, from her time in New York where she was a top model through her years with Man Ray and most poignantly to her time as a war correspondent and photographer. A glass case contains many of her trophies, knuckle dusters, camera and even writing paper filched from Adolf Hitler’s desk. In Hitler’s apartment, after three weeks on the road in uniform, with no washing facilities, she took a bath, in Hitler’s bath! Her friend, a young Jewish photographer did the same and they took pictures of each other doing so – the same day that Hitler and Eva Braun took their own lives! What in one glance might seem like a pair of funny images take on a massive significance.
Roland Penrose never achieved the same prominence as an artist as his many friends but he did achieve fame and acclaim as an organiser of great exhibitions.
Lee Miller’s work is as poignant as ever, her war photographs have a great beauty despite the often sad or horrific content of the images. Her eye for composition is exquisite, seeing beyond the ordinary to create the extraordinary.
I felt inspired by the whole experience, the paintings, photographs, artifacts and the kitchen in which they say Miller found a new way to calm her restless mind. I also felt ashamed that this was my first visit to this amazing piece of art and social history – only a stone’s throw from my home. I urge you not to take as long as I did in discovering this amazing gem.

www.farleyfarmhouse.co.uk
Farley Farm House, Gallery & Garden
is open to visitors every Sunday
until the end of October 2015. To coincide with Chiddingly Festival and Artists Open Studios they will be open to visitors for two full weekends on Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 September 2015, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 October 2015. House Tour & Garden entry 2015 is £9.50 per person. Age suitability 12 yrs+.