A new poignant and revealing memoir that shines an intimate light on Nottingham’s very own ‘British Van Gogh’ is published next month. Cyril Mann’s family hailed from our city, with the very talented young artist spending most of his childhood here.
He became the youngest boy ever to win a scholarship to the Nottingham School of Art, aged just 12, going on to create some truly stunning works now held in major public and private collections worldwide. Both Cyril and his grandfather have exhibited pictures in Nottingham Castle, the former also enjoying an exhibition with the Midland Group of Designers in the city in the 1950s.
The maverick artist and sculptor very much swam against the art world stream, yet had the potential to become one of the most important figurative painters of his time. Possessed of formidable gifts as a painter, he made a number of genuinely innovative breakthroughs. Yet, struggling with mental health problems, Mann (1911-80) had an unerring instinct for turning each moment of promise into bitter disappointment.
