Date: 2nd September 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
World’s Top Artist to visit Cathedral
One of the world’s most widely respected glass artists, and a close friend of David Hockney, is
visiting the Cathedral to give an illustrated talk on his unique glass creations – an Artspace event
celebrating the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the new East End of the Cathedral.
Peter Layton was born in Prague but fled the Nazis with his family at the age of two, travelling to
Bradford to join his grandfather Victor Hecht, a doctor, who had also managed to escape. Victor
became the Bradford City Pathologist and as a child Peter loved visiting his laboratory and staring
into his microscope; this was the root of his interest in microphotography and texture. Peter
attended Belle Vue Grammar School, where a friend introduced him to David Hockney; a friendship
that continues to this day. Peter left school to work in the woollen trade in Batley, but after
spending a year on a kibbutz with a group of artists he enrolled at Bradford College of Art. He
intended to paint, but soon gravitated to 3D and in particular to the pottery department. From
Bradford, Peter went to the Central School of Art in London to study ceramics under some of the
leading potters of the day, and then to the University of Iowa to teach. It was at Iowa that Peter
chanced upon glassblowing. He had already been experimenting with more spontaneous methods
of using clay, so he was easily seduced by the immediacy and fluidity of this exciting new medium.
Peter set up the London Glassblowing Studio and Gallery in 1976. It has become one of Europe’s
leading creative hubs for glassmaking; a workshop that experiments with glass in an organic fashion,
breathing life and energy into the material. In 2009 London Glassblowing moved to its present
location in Bermondsey, just south of the Thames in London, where visitors can watch Peter’s
beautiful glass being created.
YOURS : FAITHFULLY
info@bradfordcathedral.og
www.bradfordcathedral.org
Bradford Cathedral, Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH
T: 01274 777720 F: 01274 777730
In collaboration with the Royal Academy, Peter created a new collection of glass art to celebrate
David Hockney’s exhibition ‘A Bigger Picture’ in 2012. The pieces interpret Hockney’s striking use
of light, colour and form and are the result of extensive experimentation in the studio inspired by
the breadth of Hockney’s paintings. Each piece is unique and signed by Peter.
The two major influences in Peter’s life have been his maternal grandfather Victor Hecht and the
City of Bradford. It was Victor, an amateur painter and photographer and lover of the arts, who
took Peter to exhibitions and concerts, often in Bradford, and nurtured the artist in him. Peter
found this industrial town on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors with its Victorian museums, art
galleries and concert halls to be full of character and a wonderful place in which to grow up.
London Glassblowing Studio & Gallery exhibition
Opens Monday 9th September and runs until 1st October: opening hours Monday to
Saturday from 08:30 to 16:30 but if making a special journey please ring first (777720) as special
circumstances may restrict or prevent access. Entry is free with donations appreciated.
Reception and illustrated talk by Peter Layton is at 18:00 on Wednesday
18th September: entry is free but booking essential – donations appreciated.
END
Image: Garrowby (wide standing form) by Peter Layton
For more information please contact:
Sandra Howard
t: 01274 777723
e: sandra.howard@bradfordcathedral.org
2
YOURS : FAITHFULLY
info@bradfordcathedral.og
www.bradfordcathedral.org
Bradford Cathedral, Stott Hill, Bradford, BD1 4EH
T: 01274 777720 F: 01274 777730