Accent 1 (1958)

In the first issue of Accent, the student editors set out their mission for the publication: “Students everywhere stand today at the beginning of a new phase in the development of the modern movement in visual arts…Problems of decision lie before all students. Accent states no policy other than being a forum for visual ideas.” (Accent 1, p.2). Wishing to be alert and to engage with the panoply of innovations at the time, the students intended for Accent to become “more creatively experimental in content and presentation with each succeeding issue.” (ibid).

At the time, Leeds College of Art “combined all aspects of visual creativeness including Fine Art, Design and a School of Architecture.” (ibid). Design and the built environment are the most prevalent topics in issue one; the articles discuss campus design for new universities, the education of German architects, mid-century Italian architecture, and the contemporary design of railway carriages.

One visual arts article by David Lewis about the action paintings of Alan Davie stands out, and the journal’s back cover and three interior pages feature subtle and elegant line drawings by Anne Munro, the sole female contributor. It was these two artists who caught the eyes of first year BA (Hons) Creative Writing students, Lillian Ellis and Dottie Hall. Their creative responses can be read below.

I saw a copy of the new Student Magazine Accent recently, in which your name graced the credit page. You stood out to me, unlike most. You and me are similar through one common factor, therefore seeing your name- “Anne Munro”- sparked some sort of hope. While simple in concept, your art goes a long way. I care much more about that than what these men had to say.

Image: Image: Drawing by Alice Munro

Your bravery to enter a male dominated industry is beautiful, you’ve done so with little fear. As I sit and write to you with a shaking hand, I find power in the perfect lines that you created. In an industry that is supposed to value women but so clearly doesn’t. You are keeping us in. In the industry that doesn’t love us, that rejects us. Rejected me.

Image: List of contributors

People like me have found ourselves again in this small piece of you. A reminder that we should pray for better days. A reminder that the fight is not over. I hope that in the next issue, if they chose to publish again, more names like ours are included in its pages. Not as a sideline, as a headline. With the credit we deserve, in the art we seem to make. The art that calls our names.

Thank you for your fight, and may you keep us in it.

Feminist Four.

Rationale

“I chose to write my piece on Anne Munro’s name because she was the only woman credited in the first issue of Accent. I thought that a letter would be a good way to present this piece, as it is more intimate. To me, this piece is important to show how far women have come in art, and how much further we still have to go.” – Lillian Ellis

Image: Left: Image of painting by Alan Davie. Right: Article by David Lewis

She sighed. It was a simple sigh of contentment that softened her shoulders and left a delicate smile in the corners of her mouth. One piece captivated her attention. An abstract painting, almost overbearing in size, garish and confused in colour, its form nor symbolism clear. She stepped in to take a closer look. Swathes of colour flooded her view in melting shapes.

“Laughter,” came a bellowing voice from next to her.

She darted an unsure look.

“I think it looks like laughter, don’t you?”

She replied, “And what exactly does laughter look like?”

“Well, that!” A shared chuckle rolled into the rafters.

“I dunno”, she said, “I think it looks a bit like beans on toast if you squint hard enough.”

The stranger smiled a wide smile that cracked into his blushing cheeks and wrinkled his eyes a little. Endearing, she thought.

They looked back at the painting, time losing its grip on normality.

“Well I best be off /”

“/ Are you staying long?”.

Their clashing dialogue overlapped in awkward tension. Agnes panicked. She found herself in a rush to leave before she made some social blunder and

CLATTER

Agnes misjudged (entirely missed seeing) the small step into the next room.

The stranger looked on as limbs swung and lipsticks flew and an entire bag’s contents of make-up brushes, pens, an old apple and books and…

Oh, great.

Fluorescent yellow tampons rolled across the floor in an alarming spatial span.

He darted to his knees to help, as Agnes grasped several tampons in one hand and a lipstick missing a lid in the other and stuffed them back into the bag.

“You missed this one.” His deep voice cut through the chaos.

Her sketchbook. Unused in months. Carried around on unnecessary trips, daily.

As Agnes gathered her scattered belongings, the stranger took in her wild hair, dancing around her shoulders; stray wisps gently sticking to her increasingly beaded face. She rose, bare arms wrapped around her handbag. She left in a frenzied pitter patter. The stranger looked on until she disappeared from view. Heart pounding, he clutched her library card.

Back home, Agnes dumped her bag by the door and searched the house.

“A ha!”. Her canvas and paint set. Dusty. Waiting.

She dipped a brush into an unsuspecting mug. Brush stroke on brush stroke, shape on colour on mess on perfection. Creating. Splashing the once blank page with colour, with company. She began to paint.

Rationale

“Transforming the simple sheet of white paper into an endless space, wherein we roam deaf among exploding galaxies.”

“The struggle in the act of creation itself is to be without preconception or goal; but to begin and allow painting and painter to flow together from nowhere, toward the unforeseeable.”

“And yet one lives, and strange things happen, and Art also just happens, like falling in love.”

These are the quotes from the article Abstract Painting, which inspired me to write my short story; of love, friendship, a chance crossing of paths which altered their trajectory (who knows?) and the analogy of action painting and relinquishing preconceptions and goals to just let art happen, (or let love happen).” – Dottie Hall