NIGEL HENDERSON: HMS INVINCIBLE

Henderson HMS Invincible. Courtesy James Hyman Gallery

You might say the collage artist and photographer Nigel Henderson was well connected. 

His Bohemian mother set up Peggy Guggenheim’s London gallery in 1938; through her he met Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy, and saw his early collage work exhibited alongside that of Picasso, Braque and Gris.

He was also friendly with the Bloomsbury Group, marrying Virginia Woolf’s niece Judith Stephen in 1943. After serving in the RAF in WW2 (and suffering a nervous breakdown) he attended the Slade School of Art, where he hooked up with the likes of Eduardo Paolozzi, William Turnbull and Richard Hamilton: they went on to form the Independent Group, seeking to challenge the ‘elitist’ Modernist movement by referencing elements of popular culture. This was, in effect, the genesis of the British Pop Art movement. He was involved in, and designed the poster for, the seminal This is Tomorrow show at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1956.

Along the way, he formed close friendships with Dylan Thomas, WH Auden and TS Eliot.

After the war Henderson moved to Bermondsey, where he “just walked and walked and kept staring at everything. And it occurred to me after a while that I might try carrying a camera with me, but it wasn’t that I decided to be a photographer.” His series of photos of street life in the bomb-damaged East End of London is held by the Tate.

He was particularly drawn to posters, shop signs and graffiti, and the photograph entitled HMS Invincible probably comes from that era (its exact date is unknown, but thought to be c1949-52). The photograph is of a wall-poster (possibly advertising Laver’s Timber Merchant, but I may be wrong) depicting a rugged-looking sailor from the ship HMS Invincible, sunk in WW1. Underneath, though, you can see the remnants of at least one other poster, resulting in an eye appearing above the ear of the sailor.

You might call it an ‘accidental collage’, with a surrealist twist. Typical Henderson! You can almost sense his glee when he spotted it.

The photograph is currently on show at James Hyman Gallery, in their Modern British Art Part I exhibition (until December 1) alongside works by Tony Bevan, Prunella Clough, Derrick Greaves, John Davies, Leon Kossoff, Edward Middleditch, Peter Phillips, Paula Rego, Walter Sickert, Jack Smith and Aubrey Williams.

HMS Invincible: Nigel Henderson. The estate of Nigel Henderson is represented by James Hyman Gallery.