London, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition, 1969 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 784);
London, Royal Academy, Arts Council exhibition, John Tunnard 1900-71, 1977 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 75, p. 35);
Bristol, Royal West of England Academy, Artists from Cornwall, 1992 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 123);
St. Ives, Tate Gallery, 1994;
Chichester, Pallant House, John Tunnard, Inner and Outer Space, March – June 2010 (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, no. 49, p. 103);
London, Agnew’s, John Tunnard: Dream Landscapes, 7 September – 7 October 2011;
Durham, Durham Art Gallery, John Tunnard: Nature, Politics and Science, 18 July – 3 October 2015;
Woking, The Lightbox, The Road to Abstraction, 21 May – 24 July 2016;
London, Business Design Centre, London Art Fair Museum Partner, Ten Years – A Century of Art, 18 – 22 January 2017;
Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Land | Sea | Life: A British Art Collection, 20 October 2017 – 17 February 2018;
London, Mall Galleries, The Art of Collecting, 27 June – 6 July 2018;
Sheffield, Museums Sheffield, Darkness into Light, 20 October 2018 – 13 January 2019
Literature:
P. Huxley (ed.), Exhibition Road: Painters at the Royal College of Art, Phaidon, Christie’s and the Royal College of Art, Oxford, 1988 (illustrated);
Alan Peat and Brian Whitton, John Tunnard: His Life and Work, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1997 (illustrated in colour, no. 885, pl. 86)
Tunnard painted semi-abstract works and was fascinated by science, specifically space travel and entomology. With failing health, Messenger was Tunnard’s last major work, made during the same year as the first manned moon landing. Tunnard was influenced by the work of Joan Miro, Paul Klee and Ben Nicholson. Chris Ingram says, “I have six works by Tunnard in The Ingram Collection. There are often themes of communications, space and the sea in his work which I suppose all appeal in different ways to me. (I spent nearly a lifetime in the communications industry.) Tunnard is yet another artist of this period who is under- appreciated. Messenger is a real stunner and perhaps this show will help a few more people realise what a talent he was.”
