BIOGRAPHY
1912
William Kenneth Wood, born in Sheffield.
Post-school work experience in an Advertising Agency, where he learned Typography.
1930 – 1933
Studied Painting at Sheffield College of Arts & Crafts. While at the Art College, he met Jan Bussell, Director of Sheffield’s Repertory Theatre & the BBC’s Northern Director of Programmes, who also ran his own Marionette Theatre (it was his wife, Anne Bussell, who had an early success in television with her puppet, Muffin the Mule).
Initially, Jan Bussell commissioned him to paint the frontispieces for his Marionette Theatre, then persuaded him to leave Sheffield to join a London based community of International artists and puppeteers, known as “The London Marionette Theatre“, run by Edith “Biddy” Lanchester, whose daughter, Elsa, married the actor, Charles Laughton.
Accompanying him South was his fellow art student and life long friend, the painter, Rowland Suddaby.
Charles Laughton, along with Sir Edward Marsh, Winston Churchill’s private secretary, was one of an early group of Londoners to start collecting Kenneth Wood paintings.
1936 – 1939
Exhibitions at Wertheim Gallery. See Raymond Mortimer’s review of 1939.
Despite maintaining his central passion for Painting, surrounded by puppeteers, Kenneth Wood also started to hand carve his own marionettes (each two foot tall), and established an independent Marionette Theatre of his own.
1936
The Daily Mail organised an Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia, at which he collaborated with Biddy Lanchester’s son, Waldo, in staging a six minute play, using marionettes, to publicize the Electrical Development Society.
He met and married his wife, Anne Waterman.
1937
From their first marital home in Fitzrovia, they moved to Essex, renting a disused Victorian School House, St Nicholas Cottage, Little Braxted, which remained Kenneth Wood’s principal home and studio throughout his life.
1944 – 1945
Separated by War: Kenneth Wood in the Middle East, with the Royal Army Engineers, and Anne Wood in Paris, working for the American forces.
Because of his skills as both Painter & Typographer (first in Cairo & later in Iraq), Kenneth Wood was immediately assigned to Camouflage, allowing him to continue to paint throughout the war.
In Cairo, he befriended the photographer, Dicky Grierson, They were both later posted to Iraq, where they became attached to the Embassy in Baghdad, working for the Ministry of Information, under Stewart Perowne. Because of their privileged attachment to the Embassy, instead of barracks, they were given a house, on the banks of the Tigris, in which to live, which they shared with the painter, Edward Bawden
Following a one-man show in Baghdad, Kenneth Wood’s paintings were sent on to Cairo, for inclusion in the United Nations Exhibition.
1946
Immediately after the war, he rejoined his wife in Paris, where they continued to live for several years, Anne still working for the American forces in Paris, and he now able to afford a separate studio. It was in Paris that their daughter, and only child, was born. Nevertheless, as the marriage became increasingly stormy, first Kenneth Wood by himself, followed later by his wife and daughter, they returned to England.
1948 – 1950
The Redfern Gallery Exhibitions
From the immediate post-war years, until the early 1950’s, Kenneth Wood exhibited regularly at the Redfern Gallery: two one-man shows in 1948 & 1950, plus a joint exhibition, with Osbert Lancaster in 1948.
In 1948 he also participated in the Redfern’s mixed Summer Exhibition.
1949
He exhibited with The Leger Gallery.
As before the war, his work continued to attract critical acclaim and interest from the most influential art critics of the time. See Eric Newton’s review of 1948 & the personal letter of encouragement from the art historian, Kenneth Clark.
1948 – 1958
He and his family continued to live on the money he made from Painting...plus the Art History lecture courses he ran for both the WEA (Worker’s Educational Association) and the Extra Mural Department of London University.
1959
Now in his late forties, he began a reluctant career as an Art Director at various London Advertising Agencies: including G.S.Royds and Butler & Gardner. He worked on accounts for Schweppes, Courtaulds & Alitalia .
1969
Separated, but never divorced from his wife, Anne.
1972
He set up his own small Design Studio, in conjunction with his friend, the printer, Ken Dartford. One of his key accounts was for Dunlop which he held for many years for whom he designed all the flashes on their tennis racquets and golf clubs.
Throughout these Advertising years, he never stopped painting.
1987
Retired from his Design Studio.
1988 – 2008
He painted ceaselessly, producing a vast body of late works, while remaining, as always, his own most severe critic.
The hundreds of paintings he has left, quite apart from the large numbers sold into private collections, are matched by the numbers he regularly destroyed.
And yet, part of Kenneth Wood’s great legacy as gifted painter, is the example he set of how to travel into industrious old age, with both stoicism and undiminished passion.
2008
Kenneth Wood died on 27th March, aged 95