An unusual exhibition which looks at the fanciful expansion of King’s College through architectural sketches executed in a naive, intuitive idiom is now open in the King’s Arts Centre.
An unusual exhibition which looks at the fanciful expansion of King’s College through architectural sketches executed in a naive, intuitive idiom is now open in the King’s Arts Centre.
The exhibition, which displays work by Cambridge alumnus John Devlin, includes 22 architectural sketches which look at the expansion of King's College in the spirit - if not the letter - of the man who founded it in 1441, the saintly king Henry VI.
The individual sketches are 8.5 x 11 inch sheets, executed in ball point pen, crayola crayon, Laurentian colour pencils and simple marker pens to give a sense of the quickness of doodling, which may also be architectural sketching.
Devlin was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and studied architecture at Dalhousie University, graduating in 1977. After two years as a stockbroker, he decided to enter the Church ministry and to that end applied to Cambridge.
He attended St Edmund's College between 1979 and 1980 to study the theology tripos. After unfortunately falling ill Devlin returned to Canada in June 1980.
In 1983 he began to write a collection of short stories and between 1984 and 1988 he worked on a portfolio of architectural sketches. The end product was a collection of over 360 sheets.
Some were exhibited at Technical University of Nova Scotia in 1988 and more at the Dartmouth Heritage Museum in 1996. He has more recently pursued writing essays on architecture and other topics, poetry, more short stories, a dream diary and other literary material.
The King's Art Centre was established in the 1970s. Exhibitions at the Centre, which can be found on 'A' staircase in the left hand corner of the Front Court, are open to the public 11am to 5pm daily. The current exhibition is on display until 25 June.
The Centre consists of a gallery and studio where art lessons are held, plus a 'messy room' for paint and other techniques. The studios are freely available to members of College.
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