DURHAM CITY.- A major exhibition exploring the work of Modernist designer and painter John Tunnard looks at the historical and cultural factors that shaped his art.

John Tunnard – Nature, Politics and Science, at the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, in Durham City, brings together about 100 works taken from both public and private collections and covering the entirety of Tunnard’s career.

Born in 1900, Tunnard trained in design at the Royal College of Art. During the 1920s, he taught design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts while also working as a textile designer.

In 1933, Tunnard and his wife moved to Cornwall, where he came into contact with Julian Trevelyan, Henry Moore, John Betjeman and Humphrey Spender.

Tunnard always showed a clear response to artistic movements and social change but this was particularly evident immediately before, during and after the Second World War.

While his early work was Realist in style, by the 1930s, it offered a unique fusion of aspects of abstraction, surrealism and constructivism.

In 1939, the renowned collector Peggy Guggenheim mounted an exhibition of Tunnard’s paintings at her London gallery and compared his work to that of Kandinsky, Miro and Klee.

The exhibition brought Tunnard international recognition and Alfred Barr, director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York purchased works from the show to display at MOMA.

Tunnard’s work is also on display at galleries around the world including Tate Britain, National Galleries of Scotland, Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand and the Guggenheim Museum in Venice.

Nature, Politics and Science reintroduces Tunnard to the public and also looks in more depth at how his work was influenced the war years but at the same time also reflected nature.

During his time as a coastguard watching for enemy aircraft in South Cornwall, for example, Tunnard observed the changing of the seasons and, despite working long hours, this was one of his most productive artistic periods.

Lucy Jenkins, the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery’s exhibitions curator, said: “The exhibition will look at the historical and cultural factors that shaped Tunnard’s work.

“Tunnard usually recorded the date on which he completed each work. This enables us to look for likely influences at the time.

“Tunnard also explored a wide range of themes including nature and the natural world, music and improvisation, war and oppression, the sea and Cornish coastline and, in later years, space exploration and engineering.

“With dozens of works sourced from both public and private collections, Nature, Politics and Science takes in all of these themes.”

As well as Tunnard’s own paintings, the exhibition features works by his father, John Charles Samuel, and his wife, Mary May, who was known as Bob. It also includes book and magazine covers, original exhibition catalogues and examples of Tunnard’s textile designs.

It has been curated by Prof Brian Whitton, emeritus professor of biological and biomedical sciences at Durham University. Prof Whitton is a collector of Tunnard’s work and has published a number of books and catalogues of his paintings.

John Tunnard – Nature, Politics and Science is at the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery from Saturday, 18 July to Saturday, 3 October 2015.