In the early 1960s, Holland was Head of Faculty of Visual Arts at Birmingham Polytechnic. In those days, Birmingham and the Black Country, where his wife's family lived, were rather bleak and industrial areas, much in need of regeneration. Holland was weekly commuting between Birmingham, London and Kent, which cannot have been easy in those days. In addition, and perhaps influenced by his students, he tried his hand at the more abstract. All these influences combined to give Holland's work at the time a rather dour, yet highly impactful tone. In later posts I will explore the inland industrial views that were typical of this time, but the following three pictures show this evolution in his favoured shipyard scenes.
This study of a ship in dock is fairly typical, in that the colour palette is minimal and little colour or attention is given to the background detail, however the work is still figurative and true to his social realism roots. This is quite a large work, and there is a similar image on a bright blue background - the background colour was often reliant on what colour paints Holland was using for priming the board and for decorating Romford Cottage.
[Ship unloading, oil on board, framed, signed, available for purchase.]
This image of ships through a metal bridge is rare for this style in that the picture is relatively small – less than an A4 piece of paper including frame, but at the same time, the viewer needs to stand back from the work to appreciate the subject. The framework of the bridge and the view beyond framed by the bridge construction was another theme that interested Holland at this time.
[Ships in Dock, unsigned, framed, oil on board, available for purchase.]
This work is perhaps the most abstract that Holland undertook and was not highly regarded by him in later years. The ship funnels can be clearly seen, but for the rest of the image, one could say that Holland had had a fit of the Mondrians and the Jackson Pollocks!
[Abstract Shipping, oil on board, unframed, unsigned, in a private collection.]