New exhibition in Otley celebrates life and work of local artist and craftsman A H Guise
When her father died at the age of 86 in 2017, Alice Guise inherited an extraordinarily rich body of work. A talented artist, craftsman and teacher, over the course of several decades Arthur Howard Guise’s prolific creative output had included silversmithing, jewellery design, photography and drawing.
While Guise was widely known and respected as a silversmith and much-admired as an educator, many of the other works he created remained largely unseen outside of family and close friends during his lifetime. Now Alice is seeking to bring her father’s diverse skill, talent and creative imagination to the attention of a wider audience through the launch of a website that outlines his story and features an extensive online archive and by staging an exhibition of his photographic work and drawings which opens next weekend at Otley Courthouse.
“My dad left around 300 photographic images in two cardboard boxes labelled with the date and year,” says Alice. “We selected around 53 for the website and we will be showing around 40 of them in the exhibition, along with a selection of his preparatory drawings and sketches. My dad was incredibly gifted, he could turn his hand to almost anything. He was a polymath really.”
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The photographs on display include landscapes, many in Yorkshire but some further afield, urban street scenes, architectural studies and intimate portraits. Photography was a key part of Guise’s creative output. “He worked mostly in black and white to begin with and my dad developed all his own photographs too, he always had a dark room at home,” says Alice. “The idea of doing an exhibition now is really to inspire people to be creative and to demonstrate what is possible with dedication and passion. It is nice to be showing the work in Otley, which is where dad lived for most of his life.”
Guise was born in Pontefract in 1931, the youngest of five children. “I think being the youngest gave him a kind of independent spirit,” says Alice. “His father was a tenant farmer; he died when my dad was only seven, so he had quite a poverty-stricken childhood. He was always very prudent, abstemious and resourceful. And also, growing up in a rural setting, he always liked being outside and close to nature. We spent a lot of time walking in the Yorkshire Dales together and it was something he continued to do throughout his life.”
A bright, inquisitive child with an intuitive interest in the world, Guise won a place at Castleford Grammar School. “He probably would have been expected to go into mining or farming, so that was a significant step for him and how he then developed,” says Alice. “He later went to study at Leeds College of Art although his time there was interrupted by being called up for National Service. He joined the Royal Signals Corps and was posted out to Malaya, which he really enjoyed and it got him interested in travelling which continued throughout his life. While he was there, he sent money back to his mother using the army allotment system, then when he arrived home, she gave it all back to him; she had saved it up to help him with his education.” It meant he was able to resume his studies at Leeds College of Art, where he did very well, and he was later awarded a place at the Royal College of Art in London. “His contemporaries there included the designer David Mellor, the painter Peter Blake and the designer and silversmith Robert Welch,” says Alice. “They all went on to make great names for themselves but my dad never wanted fame – he just wanted to do what he wanted to do. It was creative freedom that interested him.”
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in silversmithing and jewelry, Guise started work as a designer and craftsman at the Keswick School of Industrial Art before embarking on a long career as a teacher including working at Leeds College of Art, then Leeds Polytechnic first as senior lecturer in silversmithing and jewelry and latterly as a teacher trainer in the craft design and technology department. “He really enjoyed teaching and he was a bit of a maverick I think,” says Alice. “He was always coming up with new approaches and techniques; he was always true to his own convictions in terms of the quality of design and the quality of the materials. And I think he was liked by his students. He remained friends with a lot of them for years afterwards.” There are some lovely testimonials from former students on the website who all attest to him being an exceptional teacher and a lovely man.
After his marriage broke up in the late 1970s, Guise took on the role of single parent to Alice. “My mum left with my older sister when I was 12 years old, so then it was just me and my dad,” says Alice. “He was great around the house – he was a good cook, he made his own bread, he designed and made our furniture and he had a sewing machine that he would run up things on like cushion covers and bedding. He made quite a lot of things for me, some lovely jewelry – bangles and rings – and he also made a miniature locomotive not long after I was born. He was fascinated by the mechanics of things and later in life he got interested in clockmaking – he taught himself and started making clocks, from scratch.”
After retiring from teaching at the age of 57, Guise had more time to focus on his own projects and interests. “He was so motivated – he would go into this workshop every single day – he was still working in there, experimenting and making new works, right up until a few days before he died,” says Alice. “He taught himself new skills – there wasn’t really anything that he couldn’t tackle. He started developing colour photographs and his interest in photography expanded into collecting cameras – he ended up with nearly 400 of them including 21 Leicas and four Hasselblads.” He also continued to fulfill commissions for a small circle of trusted clients and kept up his interest in travel and walking. “When I went to visit he would either be in the workshop or tending his garden; we spent a lovely afternoon in the workshop just a few days before he died, making a ring together.”
Alice says that she would like part of her father’s legacy to be as an inspiration to others. “I hope the exhibition and the website and archive might encourage people to explore their own creativity. I think especially at the moment when many people feel apprehensive about the future and with the massive shift in the digital revolution that they are looking to go back to something physical and tangible. My dad always enjoyed inspiring his students and friends to discover the joy of creating something and the total immersion that goes with that, which gives us all a connection to the real world and its beauty.”
The exhibition of A H Guise’s photography and drawings is at Otley Courthouse in Otley June 4 -August 31. Monday-Saturday. Entry is free. For more information about A H Guise visit ahguise.com