John Piper (artist)

{{Short description|English painter and printmaker (1903–1992)}}
{{For|other people named John Piper|John Piper (disambiguation){{!}}John Piper}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2015}}
{{Infobox artist
| image            = John Piper Middle Mill.jpg
| caption          = ''Middle Mill, Pembrokeshire'', 1982
| birth_name       = John Egerton Christmas Piper
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1903|12|13}}
| birth_place      = [[Epsom]], Surrey, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1992|6|28|1903|12|13}}
| death_place      = [[Fawley Bottom]], Buckinghamshire, England
| spouse           = {{unbulleted list|Eileen Holding (m. 1929–1936, divorced)|
[[Myfanwy Piper|Myfanwy Evans]] (m. 1937–1992, his death)}}
| honorific_suffix = CH
| education        = [[Richmond School of Art]]
| alma_mater       = [[Royal College of Art]]
| known_for        = Painting (oil and acrylic), printmaking, set design, stained glass
| notable_works    = {{hlist|''The Englishman's Home''|Coventry Cathedral Baptistry Window}}
}}
'''John Egerton Christmas Piper''' [[Order of the Companions of Honour|CH]] (13 December 1903 – 28 June 1992) was an English painter, [[printmaker]] and designer of [[stained-glass windows]] and both opera and theatre sets. His work often focused on the British [[Landscape art|landscape]], especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen-prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. He was educated at [[Epsom College]] and trained at the [[Richmond School of Art]] followed by the [[Royal College of Art]] in London.<ref name=tate>[[Mary Chamot]], Dennis Farr, [[Martin Butlin]] (1964–65). ''The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture'', volume II. London: Oldbourne Press; cited at [http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-piper-1774 Artist biography: John PIPER b. 1903]. Tate. Accessed February 2014.</ref> He turned from abstraction early in his career, concentrating on a more naturalistic but distinctive approach, but often worked in several different styles throughout his career.

Piper was an official war artist in [[World War II]] and his wartime depictions of bomb-damaged churches and landmarks, most notably those of [[Coventry Cathedral]], made Piper a household name and led to his work being acquired by several public collections.<ref name="JP&MP">{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|author-link=Frances Spalding|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|title=John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art|isbn=978-0-19-956761-4}}</ref> Piper collaborated with many others, including the poets [[John Betjeman]] and [[Geoffrey Grigson]] on the [[Shell Guides]],<ref>''Archaeology: A reference handbook'' by Alan Edwin Day, p. 254. {{ISBN|978-0-208-01672-0}}.</ref><ref>''Guide to Reference Books '' by Eugene P. Sheehy, p. 636. {{ISBN|978-0-8389-0390-2}}.</ref> the potter [[Geoffrey Eastop]] and the artist [[Ben Nicholson]]. In his later years, he produced many limited-edition prints.
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==Biography==
===Early life===
John Piper was born in [[Epsom]], [[Surrey]], the youngest of three sons of the solicitor Charles Alfred Piper and his wife Mary Ellen Matthews.<ref name="ODNBjp">{{cite book|editor= H. C. G. Matthew & Brian Harrison |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 44 (Phelps-Poston)|isbn=0-19-861394-6}}</ref> Charles Alfred Piper's father, Charles Christmas Piper, had taken over the family bootmaking business, and was also a partner in a printing and stationery company.<ref>John Piper, Anthony West, Secker & Warburg, 1979, p. 14</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://eehe.org.uk/?p=25664|title=John Piper (John Egerton Christmas Piper), CH 1903–92|work=Epsom & Ewell History Explorer|access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> During Piper's childhood, Epsom was still largely countryside. He went exploring on his bicycle and drew and painted pictures of old churches and monuments on the way. He started making guide books complete with pictures and information at a young age. Piper's brothers both served in the [[First World War]] and one of them was killed at [[Ypres]] in 1915.<ref name="ODNBjp"/>
[[File:The Passage to the Control-room at South West Regional Headquarters, Bristol (Art. IWM ART LD 170).jpg|thumb|''The Passage to the Control-room at South West Regional Headquarters, Bristol'' (Art. IWM ART LD 170)]]

John Piper attended [[Epsom College]] from 1919. He did not like the college but found refuge in art. When he left Epsom College in 1922, Piper published a book of poetry and wanted to study to become an artist. However, his father disagreed and insisted he join the family law firm, Piper, Smith & Piper in [[Westminster]]. Piper worked beside his father in London for three years, and took [[articles of clerkship|articles]], but refused the offer of a partnership in the firm. This refusal cost Piper his inheritance but left him free to attend [[Richmond School of Art]]. At Richmond, the artist [[Raymond Coxon]] prepared Piper for the entrance exams for the [[Royal College of Art]], which he entered in 1928. While studying at Richmond, Piper met Eileen Holding, a fellow student, whom he married in August 1929.<ref name="ODNBjp"/>

===1930s===
Piper disliked the regime at the Royal College of Art and left in December 1929. Piper and his wife lived in [[Hammersmith]] and held a joint exhibition of their artworks at [[Heal's]] in London in 1931. Piper also wrote art and music reviews for several papers and magazines, notably ''[[The Nation and Athenaeum]]''.<ref name="Dark">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/john-piper-britain-through-a-glass-darkly|title=John Piper: Britain through a glass darkly|author=Peyton Skipworth|date=24 April 2019|website=[[Art UK]]|access-date=27 May 2020}}</ref>   One such review, of the artist [[Edward Wadsworth]]'s work, led to an invitation from [[Ben Nicholson]] for Piper to join the [[Seven and Five Society]] of modern artists.<ref name="ODNBjp"/> In the following years Piper was involved in a wide variety of projects in several different media. As well as abstract paintings, he produced [[collage]]s, often with the English landscape or seaside as the subject.<ref name=Starfish>{{cite web |author=Tate|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/piper-beach-with-starfish-t05030|title=Display caption: ''Beach with Starfish'' c.1933-34 |access-date=30 November 2017|work=[[Tate]]}}</ref> He drew a series on Welsh nonconformist chapels, produced articles on English typography and made arts programmes for the [[BBC]]. He experimented with placing constructions of dowelling rods over the surface of his canvases and with using mixtures of sand and paint.<ref name=LCumming>{{cite web |author=Laura Cumming |author-link=Laura Cumming |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/19/john-piper-surrealism-in-egypt-tate-liverpool-review|title=John Piper; Surrealism in Egypt: Art et Liberte 1938-48 - review |date=19 November 2017|access-date=30 November 2017|work=The Observer}}</ref>

With [[Myfanwy Evans]], Piper founded the contemporary art journal ''[[Axis (magazine)|Axis]]'' in January 1935.<ref name="Dark"/> As the art critic for ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]'', through working on ''Axis'' and by his membership of the [[London Group]] and the Seven and Five Society, Piper was at the forefront of the modernist movement in Britain throughout the 1930s.<ref name="vanRaay">{{cite book|author1=Stefan van Raay |author2=Frances Guy |author3=Simon Martin |author4=Andrew Churchill |publisher=Scala Publishers|year=2004|title=Modern British Art at Pallant House Gallery|isbn=1857593316}}</ref> In 1935 Piper and Evans began documenting [[Early English Period|Early English]] sculptures in British churches. Piper believed that Anglo-Saxon and [[Romanesque art|Romanesque]] sculptures, as a popular art form, had parallels with contemporary art.<ref name="vanRaay"/> Through Evans, Piper met [[John Betjeman]] in 1937 and Betjeman asked Piper to work on the [[Shell Guides]] he was editing. Piper wrote and illustrated the guide to Oxfordshire, focusing on rural churches. In March 1938 [[Stephen Spender]] asked Piper to design the sets for his production of ''Trial of a Judge''. Piper's first one-man show in May 1938 included abstract paintings, collage landscapes and more conventional landscapes. His second in March 1940 at the [[Leicester Galleries]], featuring several pictures of derelict ruins, was a sell-out.<ref name="ODNBjp"/>

Piper had first met Myfanwy Evans in 1934 and early the next year when his wife Eileen left him for another artist, Piper and Evans moved into an abandoned farmhouse at [[Fawley Bottom]] in the [[Chilterns]] near [[Henley-on-Thames]]. The farmhouse had no mains electricity, no mains water and no telephone connection. They married in 1937. They gradually converted the farm's outbuildings to studios for their artworks, but it was not until the 1960s that they could afford to modernise the property.<ref name="DFJenkins">{{cite book|author=David Fraser Jenkins & Hugh Fowler-Wright|publisher=Unicorn & The Portland Gallery|year=2016|title= The Art of John Piper|isbn=9781910787052}}</ref>

===World War II===
[[File:St Mary le Port, Bristol by John Piper (1940) (Tate N05718).jpg|thumb|''St Mary le Port, Bristol'', 1940, (Tate)]]
[[File:Shelter Experiments, near Woburn, Bedfordshire (Art. IWM ART LD 3859).jpg|thumb|''Shelter Experiments, near Woburn, Bedfordshire'' (Art. IWM ART LD 3859)]]
At the start of World War II, Piper volunteered to work interpreting aerial reconnaissance photographs for the RAF, but was persuaded by [[Sir Kenneth Clark]] to work as an official [[war artist]] for the [[War Artists' Advisory Committee]] (WAAC), which he did from 1940 to 1944 on short-term contracts.<ref name="Gardiner">{{cite book|last=Gardiner|first=Juliet|publisher=Review/Headline Book Publishing|year=2004|title=Wartime, Britain 1939-1945 |isbn=0-7553-1028-4}}</ref> Piper was one of only two artists, the other being [[Meredith Frampton]], commissioned to paint inside [[Air Raid Precaution]] (ARP) control rooms. Early in 1940 Piper was secretly taken to the ARP underground centre in Bristol, where he painted two pictures.<ref name="WW2Art">{{cite book|publisher=Imperial War Museum|year=2007|title=Art from the Second World War|isbn=978-1-904897-66-8}}</ref>

In November 1940 Piper persuaded the WAAC committee that he should be allowed to concentrate on painting bombed churches. This may have reflected his pre-war conversion to the [[Anglican]] faith as much as his previous interest in depicting derelict architectural ruins. The terms of this commission meant Piper would be visiting bombed cities, and other sites, as soon as possible after an air raid: often "the following morning, before the clearing up".<ref name=MlePort/> Hence he arrived in [[Coventry]] the morning after the [[Coventry Blitz]] air raid of 14 November 1940 that resulted in 1000 casualties and the destruction of the medieval [[Coventry Cathedral]]. Piper made drawings of the cathedral and other gutted churches in the city which he subsequently worked up into oil paintings in his studio. Piper's first painting of the bombed cathedral, ''Interior of Coventry Cathedral'', now exhibited at the [[Herbert Art Gallery]], was described by Jeffery Daniels in ''[[The Times]]'' as "all the more poignant for the exclusion of a human element".<ref name="JP&MP"/> Piper's depiction of the east end of the cathedral was printed as a post-card during the war and sold well. In 1962 the same image was used on the cover of the official souvenir guide to the Cathedral."<ref name="JP&MP"/>

After the bombing raids of 24 November 1940 on Bristol, Piper arrived in the city a day, or possibly two, later. Piper only spent a few hours in the city, but his sketches resulted, by January 1941, in three oil paintings of ruined churches: ''St Mary-le-Port, Bristol'', ''The Temple Church'' and ''The Church of the Holy Nativity''.<ref name=MlePort>{{cite web |last=Gale|first=Matthew|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/piper-st-mary-le-port-bristol-n05718/text-catalogue-entry|title=Catelogue entry: ''St.Mary le Port, Bristol'' (1940)|year=1996|access-date=13 July 2015|work=[[Tate]]}}</ref> Piper also painted bombed churches and other buildings in London and [[Newport Pagnell]], and also spent a week painting in Bath after the [[Bath Blitz]] air raids in April 1942.<ref name="DFJenkins"/><ref name="Foss">{{cite book|last=Foss|first=Brain|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|title=War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939-1945 |isbn=978-0-300-10890-3}}</ref> During the summer of 1941, Piper featured in a group exhibition with [[Henry Moore]] and [[Graham Sutherland]] at [[Temple Newsam]] in Leeds. The show was a great success, attracting some 52,000 visitors before touring to other English towns and cities.<ref name="JP&MP"/>

In 1943, the WAAC commissioned Piper to go to the disused slate mine at [[Blaenau Ffestiniog]] where the paintings from the [[National Gallery]] had been evacuated for safety during the [[The Blitz|Blitz]]. Piper found conditions in the underground quarry too difficult to work in but did paint some landscapes in the immediate area. He also toured [[North Wales]] by bicycle, cycling and climbing to photograph and sketch buildings and views in [[Harlech]], in the [[Vale of Ffestiniog]], on [[Cader Idris]] and on [[Aran Fawddwy]].<ref name="MMunroDFJ">{{cite book|author=David Fraser Jenkins & Melissa Munro|publisher=National Museum of Wales|year=2012|title=John Piper The Mountains of Wales - Paintings and Drawings from a Private Collection|isbn=9780720006186}}</ref> Piper had previously visited [[Snowdonia]] in 1939, 1940 and 1941, and often returned there after the war.<ref name=MMunro>{{cite web |last=Munro|first=Melissa|url=http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/articles/2012-04-27/John-Piper-A-Journey-Through-Snowdonia/ |title=John Piper: A Journey Through Snowdonia |date=27 April 2012|access-date=3 November 2015|work=[[National Museum Wales]]}}</ref><ref name=Walesjp>{{cite web|url=https://www.oriel.org.uk/en/artists/piper-john|title=John Piper|year=2014|access-date=27 October 2015|work=Oriel Glyn-y-Weddw|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018204050/https://www.oriel.org.uk/en/artists/piper-john|archive-date=18 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Piper was also commissioned by the WAAC to record a series of experiments on bomb shelter designs and land reclamation work. Alongside [[Vivian Pitchforth]], he painted the bombed interior of the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]].<ref name=LNead>{{cite web |last=Nead|first=Lynda|author-link=Lynda Nead|url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/how-john-piper-found-beauty-in-bombed-buildings |title=How John Piper found beauty in bombed buildings |date=18 September 2017|access-date=12 September 2017|work=Art UK}}</ref> In July 1944 the WAAC appointed Piper to the full-time artist post vacated by [[John Platt (artist)|John Platt]] at the [[Ministry of War Transport]]. In this role Piper painted rail and marine transport scenes in [[Cardiff]], [[Bristol]], [[Southampton]] and other south-coast locations.<ref name="Foss"/><ref name=IWMWAAC>{{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050000860 |title=War artists archive: John Piper |access-date=14 June 2015|work=[[Imperial War Museum]]}}</ref> Earlier in the war, he had also painted at the locomotive works in [[Swindon]].<ref name="JP&MP"/>

Throughout the war Piper also undertook work for the [[Recording Britain]] project, initiated by Kenneth Clark, to paint historic sites thought to be at risk from bombing or neglect.<ref name=Asykes>{{cite web |last=Sykes|first=Alan|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2013/mar/27/heritage-heritage-durham-v-a-blitz-art  |title=Exhibition at Durham shows art commissioned during the dark days of the Blitz|date=27 March 2013|access-date=15 September 2015|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref><ref name="RHump">{{cite book|last=Humphreys|first=Richard|publisher=Tate Publishing|year=2001|title=Tate Britain Companion to British Art|isbn=185-437-3730}}</ref> He also undertook some private commissions during the war. [[Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Viscount Ridley|Viscount Ridley]] commissioned him to produce a series of watercolours of [[Blagdon Hall]] and this led to a commission from the Royal Family for a series of watercolours of [[Windsor Castle]] and [[Windsor Great Park]], which Piper completed by March 1942.<ref name="DFJenkins"/> The King, [[George VI]] was unimpressed with the dark tone of the pictures and commented, ''"You seem to have very bad luck with your weather, Mr Piper"''.<ref name=LCumming/>

Sir [[Osbert Sitwell]] invited Piper to [[Renishaw Hall]] to paint the house and illustrate an autobiography he was writing. Piper made the first of many visits to the estate in 1942. The family retain 70 of his pictures and there is a display at the hall.<ref name=SpaldDT>{{cite web |author=Frances Spalding |author-link=Frances Spalding |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/ways-with-words/7745847/Ways-With-Words-2010-John-Piper-a-sombre-yet-fiery-genius.html |title=Ways With Words 2010: John Piper: a sombre yet fiery genius|date=20 May 2010|access-date=1 January 2013|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]}}</ref> Piper painted a similar series at [[Knole House]] for [[Edward Sackville-West]].<ref name="ODNBjp"/> In 1943, Piper received the first of several poster commissions from [[Ealing Studios]]. His draft poster for the film ''[[The Bells Go Down]]'' featured a view of [[St Paul's Cathedral]] seen among monumental ruins.<ref name="WW2Art2015">{{cite book|publisher=Imperial War Museum|year=2015|title=Art from the Second World War|isbn=978-1-904897-66-8|edition=2015}}</ref>

===Later life===
[[Image:Baptistry Window -Coventry Cathedral-5July2008.jpg|thumb|upright|The Baptistry Window at [[Coventry Cathedral]]]]
From 1950 Piper began working in [[stained glass]] in partnership with [[Patrick Reyntiens]], whom he had met through John Betjeman.<ref name=vanda>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/christ-between-saints-peter-and-paul/ Christ between St Peter & St Paul]. Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed February 2014.</ref> Their first completed commission, for the chapel at [[Oundle School]], led to [[Basil Spence]] commissioning them to design the stained-glass [[baptistry]] window for the new [[Coventry Cathedral]].<ref name="NPatel">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/painting-in-coloured-light-the-modern-stained-glass-designs-of-john-piper? |title=Painting in coloured light: the modern stained glass designs of John Piper|date=31 May 2021|author=Natalie Patel|website=[[Art UK]]|accessdate= 3 June 2021}}</ref> They produced an abstract design that occupies the full height of the bowed baptistry, and comprises 195 panes, ranging from white to deep blue.<ref name="NPatel"/><ref name="SGlass">{{cite book|author=Judith Neiswander & Caroline Swish|publisher=The Intelligent Layman Publishers Ltd |year=2005|title=Stained & Art Glass, A Unique History of Glass Design and Making|isbn=094779865X}}</ref> Their depiction of ''The Supper at Emmaus'' was installed at [[Llandaff Cathedral]] in Cardiff during 1953.<ref name="ERowan">{{cite book|author=Eric Rowan|publisher=Welsh Arts Council, University of Wales Press|year=1985|title=Art in Wales: An Illustrated History 1850-1980|isbn=0708308546}}</ref>

Piper and Reyntiens went on to design large stained-glass windows for the chapel of [[Robinson College]], Cambridge, and ''The Land Is Bright'', a large window in the [[Washington National Cathedral]], as well as windows for many smaller churches.<ref name="NPatel"/><ref name="SGlass"/> [[Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral]], completed in 1967, features an innovative stained glass lantern by Piper and Reyntiens. The lantern panels were cemented together with epoxy resin within thin concrete ribs, a technique invented for the job. Side chapels were also framed in glass to their designs.<ref name=stock>{{cite web|title=Taking Stock - Catholic Churches of England & Wales|url=http://taking-stock.org.uk/Home/Dioceses/Archdiocese-of-Liverpool/Liverpool-Metropolitan-Cathedral-of-Christ-the-King|year=2017|access-date=3 July 2017|publisher=Patrimony Committee of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales|archive-date=14 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180314042624/http://taking-stock.org.uk/Home/Dioceses/Archdiocese-of-Liverpool/Liverpool-Metropolitan-Cathedral-of-Christ-the-King|url-status=dead}}</ref> Piper and Reyntiens also made windows for the [[King George VI Memorial Chapel]] in [[St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle|St George's Chapel]] at [[Windsor Castle]].<ref name=Times69>{{cite news|title=News in Brief|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CS17789046/TTDA?u=wes_ttda&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=db169109|accessdate=|work=[[The Times]]|issue=57516|date=22 March 1969|page=1}}</ref>

Piper also designed windows for [[Eton College Chapel]], which were executed by Reyntiens. In total, Piper designed over 60 stained glass window commissions.<ref name="NPatel"/> The last of these was the 1984 memorial window to John Betjeman in All Saints Church at [[Farnborough, Berkshire|Farnborough]] in Berkshire.<ref name="NPatel"/>

In 1962 Piper completed the ''Spirit of Energy'' murals in fibreglass on the outside of the 1950s built former North Thames Gas Board headquarters on Peterborough Road in Fulham. The building is now known as the Piper Building and the murals were Grade II listed in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-10-25 |title=The Battle to Save 20th-Century Murals in Britain |url=https://www.worldofinteriors.com/story/20th-century-murals-in-britain-campaign |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=The World Of Interiors |language=en-GB}}</ref>

[[File:John Piper tapestry, Chichester Cathedral - geograph.org.uk - 816472.jpg|thumb|Tapestry for Chichester Cathedral]]
In 1966 [[Walter Hussey]], the [[Dean (Christianity)|Dean]] of [[Chichester Cathedral]], commissioned Piper to produce a tapestry to enliven the dark area around the high altar of the cathedral. Piper had designed the [[cope]] presented to Hussey when he left his previous post in 1955, and for Chichester he produced a very brightly coloured tapestry with an abstract design of the Holy Trinity flanked by the [[Classical element|Elements]] and by the Evangelists.<ref name="vanRaay" /><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.chichestercathedral.org.uk/visiting-us/cathedral-plan/delve-deeper-high-altar-john-piper-tapestry |title= High Altar & John Piper Tapestry |publisher= Chichester Cathedral |access-date= 17 January 2023}}</ref> Although the tapestry received a mixed, mostly negative, reaction from the public, Piper was commissioned to create a set of clerical vestments to complement the work in 1967.<ref name="vanRaay" /> Piper also created tapestries for [[Hereford Cathedral]]<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9208626.renowned-artist-john-piper-on-display-at-hereford-museum-and-art-gallery/ |title= Renowned artist John Piper on display at Hereford Museum and Art Gallery |date= 22 August 2011 |work= Herefordshire Times |access-date= 17 January 2023}}</ref> and [[Llandaff Cathedral]] in Cardiff.

Piper made working visits to south Wales in both 1936 and 1939, and from 1943 to 1951, he made an annual painting trip to [[Snowdonia]]. He did not paint in the Welsh mountains after 1951 but did visit, and painted in [[Aberaeron]] in 1954.<ref name="MMunroDFJ"/> Piper's Snowdonia paintings and drawings were exhibited in New York in September 1947 and in May 1950, on both occasions at [[Curt Valentin]]'s Buchholz Gallery. The former show was Piper's first large solo show in the United States.<ref name="MMunroDFJ"/>

For the [[Festival of Britain]] in 1951, the [[Arts Council of Great Britain]] commissioned Piper to create a large mural, ''The Englishman's Home'', which consisted of 42 plywood panels and depicted dwellings ranging from cottages to castles. The mural was displayed in a large open porch on the South Bank festival site.<ref name=Upstone>{{cite web |last=Upstone|first=Robert|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/robert-upstone/modern-british-murals_b_2693395.html|title=Modern British Murals|date=17 February 2013 |access-date=4 April 2017|work=Huffington Post}}</ref> Later in the 1950s, Piper produced pioneering designs for furnishing fabrics for [[Arthur Sanderson & Sons]] Ltd and David Whitehead Ltd, as part of a movement to bring art and design to the masses.<ref name=fabric>{{cite web|title=John Piper: the Fabric of Modernism|url=http://pallant.org.uk/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/main-galleries/john-piper-the-fabric-of-modernism/john-piper-the-fabric-of-modernism|year=2016|access-date=9 May 2016|publisher=Pallant House Gallery|archive-date=7 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507110128/http://pallant.org.uk/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/main-galleries/john-piper-the-fabric-of-modernism/john-piper-the-fabric-of-modernism|url-status=dead}}</ref> He also designed a number of dust jackets for books, frequently depicting both natural and architectural forms, often in a state of decay, within theatrical framing.<ref name="MSalisbury">{{cite book|last=Salisbury|first=Martin|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2017|title=The Illustrated Dust Jacket|isbn=9780500519134}}</ref>

Piper continued to write extensively on modern art in books and articles.<ref>"The Listener articles 1933–"Young English Painters: Contemporary English Drawing"</ref><ref>"Lost, A Valuable Object" an essay in Myfanwy Piper's anthology "The Painter's Object", 1937.</ref><ref>"England's Early Sculptors", ''[[Architectural Review]]'', 1937.</ref> From 1946 until 1954, Piper served as a trustee of the [[Tate Gallery]].<ref name=tate/> Throughout the 1960s and 1970s he frequently visited [[Pembrokeshire]] to paint.<ref name="PostWales">{{cite book|author=Peter W. Jones & Isabel Hitchman|publisher=Gomer Press|year=2015|title=Post War to Post Modern: A Dictionary of Artists in Wales |isbn=978-184851-8766}}</ref> He was a theatre [[set designer]], including for the [[Kenton Theatre]] in [[Henley-on-Thames]]. He designed many of the premiere productions of [[Benjamin Britten]]'s operas at [[Glyndebourne Festival Opera]], the [[Royal Opera House]], [[La Fenice]] and the [[Aldeburgh Festival]], as well as for some of the operas of [[Alun Hoddinott]].<ref name="DFJenkins"/> Piper also designed firework displays, most notably for the [[Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II]] in 1977.<ref name=Standpoint>{{cite web|last=McEwan|first=John|url=http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2066/full|title=Bad luck with the Weather|date=September 2009|access-date=2 April 2017|work=[[Standpoint (magazine)|Standpoint]]|archive-date=1 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201031709/http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/2066/full|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Piper was made an Honorary Member of the [[Printmakers Council]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Sixties Pressure Group {{!}} Printmakers Council|url=https://printmakerscouncil.com/a-sixties-pressure-group/|access-date=2022-01-05|language=en-GB}}</ref>

John Piper died at his home at [[Fawley Bottom]], Buckinghamshire, where he had lived for most of his life with his wife Myfanwy. His children are Clarissa Lewis, the painter [[Edward Piper]] (deceased), Susannah Brooks and Sebastian Piper; his grandchildren include painter [[Luke Piper]] and sculptor [[Henry Piper]].

==Exhibitions==
The Tate collection holds 180 of Piper's works, including [[etching]]s and some earlier abstractions. Other collections holding Piper's work include the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], [[Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery]], [[Dallas Museum of Art]], [[National Galleries of Scotland]], [[Beaverbrook Art Gallery]], [[Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum]], [[Cleveland Museum of Art]], [[Currier Gallery of Art]], [[Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden]], [[Indianapolis Museum of Art]], [[Manchester City Art Gallery]], Norwich Museums, [[Pallant House Gallery]], [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]], [[Southampton City Art Gallery]], [[The Hepworth Wakefield]], [[The Priseman Seabrook Collection]], the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] and [[Winnipeg Art Gallery]].

Major retrospective exhibitions have been held at [[Tate Britain]] (1983–84),<ref>David Fraser Jenkins, ''John Piper'', London: [[Tate Gallery]] Publications, 1983 ({{ISBN|0-905005-94-5}})</ref> the [[Dulwich Picture Gallery]],<ref>David Fraser Jenkins, & Frances Spalding, ''John Piper in the 1930s – Abstraction on the Beach'', Merrell Publishers, 2003 ({{ISBN|1-85894-223-3}}).</ref> the [[Imperial War Museum]],<ref>David Fraser Jenkins, ''John Piper – The Forties'', Philip Wilson Publishers, 2000 ({{ISBN|0-85667-529-6}}).</ref> the [[River and Rowing Museum]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rrm.co.uk/piper/ |title=John Piper – Master of Diversity |access-date=25 April 2017|url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010422122016/http://www.rrm.co.uk/piper/ |archive-date=22 April 2001 }} exhibition, [[River and Rowing Museum]], 2000.</ref><ref>Jane Bowen (curator), ''John Piper Centenary: Crossing Boundaries'', 2002 ({{ISBN|0-9535571-4-6}}).</ref> [[Museum of Reading]] and [[Dorchester Abbey]]. In 2012 an exhibition, ''John Piper and the Church'', curated by Patricia Jordan Evans of Bohun Gallery, examined his relationship with the Church and his contribution to the development of modern art within churches.<ref>[http://johnpiperandthechurch.co.uk "John Piper and the Church"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518020022/http://johnpiperandthechurch.co.uk/ |date=18 May 2013 }}, Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire, 21 April - 10 June 2012. A celebration of HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee by The Friends of Dorchester Abbey.</ref> In 2016, the [[Pallant House Gallery]] mounted an exhibition entitled ''John Piper: The Fabric of Modernism'' which focused on Piper's textile designs,<ref name=fabric/> while 2017/ 2018 saw [[Tate Liverpool]] and Mead Gallery at [[Warwick Arts Centre]] mount a joint exhibition focusing on Piper's early career, with an emphasis on the 1930s and 1940s.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.whatsonlive.co.uk/search/news/major-john-piper-exhibition-opens-at-mead-gallery/40817|work=Birmingham What's On|title=Major John Piper exhibition opens at Mead Gallery|year=2018|access-date= 26 April 2018}}</ref> The River and Rowing Museum at [[Henley-on-Thames]] maintains a gallery dedicated to Piper.<ref name="NPatel"/>

==Published works==
* ''Oxfordshire, Shell Guide No. 11'', 1938, ([[Faber & Faber]]).
* ''British Romantic Artists'', 1942, (Collins), published as Volume 34 of ''Britain in Pictures''.
* ''Buildings and Prospects'', 1948, (London: Architectural Press), a collection of published articles.
* ''[[Romney Marsh]]'', Illustrated and Described by John Piper, 1950, ''King Penguin No. 55'', [[Penguin Books]].
* ''Shropshire, A Shell Guide'', 1951, with [[John Betjeman]],.<ref name="JBbiblio">{{cite book|author=William S. Peterson|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|title=John Betjeman: A Bibliography}}</ref>
* ''Stained Glass: Art or Anti-Art ?'', 1968, booklet.<ref name="NPatel"/>
* ''Piper's Places: John Piper in England and Wales'', 1983, with [[Richard Ingrams]],(London: [[Chatto & Windus]], The Hogarth Press) ({{ISBN|0-7011-2550-0}}).

==Stained glass==
Examples of stained glass designed by John Piper:
<gallery>
File:St Mary, Lamberhurst, Kent - Window - geograph.org.uk - 323925.jpg | [[The Church of St Mary The Virgin, Lamberhurst.|The Church of St Mary The Virgin]], [[Lamberhurst]], Kent
File:St Johns Chapel Window.jpg | East window in the [[Hospital of St John Baptist without the Barrs|Chapel of St John]], [[Lichfield]], Staffordshire
File:St Peter, Babraham, Cambridgeshire - East window - geograph.org.uk - 333992.jpg | East window in [[St Peter's Church, Babraham|St Peter's Church]], [[Babraham]], Cambridgeshire
file:Stained-glass window in Robinson College Chapel, Cambridge.jpg | [[Robinson College, Cambridge]]
File:John-piper-wolverhampton-st-andrew.jpg | St Andrew's Church, Whitmore Reans, [[Wolverhampton]], West Midlands
File:All Saints Bristol 04.jpg | [[Church of All Saints, Clifton]], Bristol
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Bowen, Jane (curator), ''John Piper Centenary: Crossing Boundaries'' (2002) ({{ISBN|0-9535571-4-6}}).
* Davis, Howard, ''A Great Job of Work For All Time. John Piper – Unknown Mosaicist'', Andamento No. 3 (2009 [British Association for Modern Mosaic]) {{OCLC|226080837}}
* Heathcote, David, ''A Shell Eye on England: The Shell County Guides 1934–1984'' (Faringdon: Libri Publishing, 2010) (ISBN 978-1- 907471-07-0)
* Jenkins, David Fraser, & John Piper, ''A Painter's Camera'' (London: [[Tate Gallery]] Publications, 1987) ({{ISBN|0-946590-81-8}})
* Jenkins, David Fraser, ''John Piper – The Robert and Rena Lewin Gift to the Ashmolean Museum'' (Oxford: [[Ashmolean Museum]], 1992) ({{ISBN|1-85444-025-X}}).
* Levinson, Orde, ''Quality and Experiment: The Prints of John Piper — A Catalogue Raisonné 1932–91'' (London: Lund Humphries Publishers, 1996) ({{ISBN|0-85331-690-2}}).
* Powers, Alan, et al., ''Piper in Print'' (Artist's Choice Edition, 2010) ({{ISBN|978-0-9558343-2-5}}).
* West, Anthony, ''John Piper'' (Secker & Warburg, 1979) ({{ISBN|0-436-56591-9}}).
* Woods, S. John, ''John Piper Paintings Drawings & Theatre Designs 1932–1954'' (New York: [[Curt Valentin]], 1955)
* Wortley, Laura, ''John Piper – Master of Diversity'' ([[Henley-on-Thames]]: [[River and Rowing Museum]], 2000) ({{ISBN|0-9535571-1-1}}) <!-- this is a valid number according to https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0953557111 --> {{OCLC|55970238}}
* ''John Piper'' (1983, Tate Gallery)
* John Piper, "Book illustration and the painter-artist", in ''Penrose Annual''; 43 (1949), p.&nbsp;52–54
* ''John Piper and the Church'' exhibition catalogue, edited by Patricia Jordan Evans and Joanna Cartwright (2012)

==External links==
* {{Art UK bio}}
{{Subject bar|commons=yes|commons-search=Category:John Piper|q=yes|d=yes|d-search=Q4363211}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Piper, John Egerton Christmas(Artist)}}
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