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The Alan Gummerson Collection at Blacksmith Shop Gallery
Work by former Leeds College of Art (now Leeds Arts University) tutor, Alan Gummerson, who taught at the college from 1957 until 1984, was featured on Quest TV’s Salvage Hunters.
Alan Gummerson was an artist that worked across many mediums as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor, working from his home near Hebden Bridge after retiring. Gummerson had exhibitions in the UK, Europe and North America with solo exhibitions locally at the Lane Gallery, Bradford and the South Square Gallery at Thornton. The Dean Clough Gallery at Halifax held a major exhibition of Gummerson’s work in 2009, but the Blacksmith’s Shop Gallery in Bishop Wilton, York, has a whole Alan Gummerson Collection including his anti-war assemblages which was filmed for Salvage Hunters.
The Blacksmith Shop Gallery was founded by Mark Ibson, a self-taught artist, abstract painter and furniture restorer. Mark and his business partner Barry Parker stumbled upon an assemblage of Gummerson’s work and have decided to keep it as a collection rather than sell it.
"Gummerson was a hidden asset to the country and we feel morally obliged to keep the assemblage collection together."
Barry Parker, Blacksmith Shop Gallery
Salvage Hunters' Drew Pritchard explored the Blacksmith Shop Gallery and purchased some of Gummerson’s art in anticipation of their appeal to potential buyers.
"The Blacksmith Shop Gallery has got one of the most unusual displays of art that you can see today in the country."
Drew Pritchard, Salvage Hunters
Drew continued; Gummerson is an “unfound, undiscovered, British great. He’s trying to tell you the futility of war and his hatred of war, and it is the work of genius”.
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