One man’s artistic wonderland, secretly created in a rented apartment and granted protected status

A rental property secretly transformed by the eccentric artist who lived there for three decades has been officially protected by the British government, five years after his death.

Shortly after Ron Gittins died in September 2019 aged 79, his family visited the flat where he had lived since the mid-1980s in Birkenhead, just outside Liverpool in the north -west of England.

What they found inside left them totally stunned. Gittins had decorated almost every available surface in his house and painted numerous murals depicting historical scenes. Artworks included paintings set in ancient Egypt and Georgian England, as well as fireplaces shaped like a roaring lion’s head and a giant minotaur’s head, and there was even a Roman bread oven.

The discovery was particularly surprising because Gittins, who had limited formal art training, widely discouraged people from visiting his home, a first-floor apartment in a Victorian duplex comprising three main rooms, a hallway, a kitchen and a bathroom. baths.

After his death, the reason became clear, according to his niece, Jan Williams.

“The house was an absolute tip and you couldn’t even get through the door,” she told CNN in a phone interview.

Williams said his uncle was “flamboyant” and “really extravagant” and was often seen around town in a suit, looking for things he would load into a shopping cart, such as bags of cement.

“That’s one of the reasons the family didn’t see him much,” Williams said, adding that she last saw him the year before he died.

“His behavior was quite difficult, but we still loved him and thought of him a lot.”

Every room in the apartment was filled with bags, boxes, books, art materials, food wrappers and more, along with lots of handwritten notes, some in code.

Soon after, Williams and his partner Chris Teasdale, who are artists themselves and run a mobile exhibition space, launched a campaign to save “Ron’s Place”, supported by friends, relatives, artists and others. other people working in the world of culture and heritage.

Together they established the Wirral Arts and Culture Community Land Trust (WACCLT), which launched a crowdfunding campaign through the Ron’s Place website, applied for listed site status and ultimately purchased the building last year.

Today, the property has been listed as Grade II by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, on the advice of national heritage body Historic England.

A spokesperson for Historic England explained the significance of the listing in an email to CNN, saying: “The inclusion of Ron’s Place on the National Heritage List for England allows us to highlight and celebrate what is important about this extraordinary place, and helps us to ensure that any future changes will not result in the loss of its significance.

“Ron would be absolutely over the moon,” Williams said of his late uncle.

“He was a sort of performance artist and the apartment he created was like his stage set and his own private world.

“He had mental health issues and went through periods of great instability. I think it was his artwork and creativity that kept him going.

The property is currently undergoing work to “stabilize and preserve” the artwork to make it a “micro-museum”, while the trust also hopes to convert the building’s other apartments to create a “holistic home of “art and creativity,” according to Williams.

The space will then be available for other artists to work in, while other plans could also include the layout of the garden and cellar.

“It’s quite poignant because when I was sorting through his things after his death, I found this postcard saying ‘I’d really like to show you what I’ve done’ but the address was wrong and I didn’t get it. “I’ve never received. It’s almost like I’m catching up now,” she said.

Ron’s Place is the first example of outsider art to be granted protected status in England, according to Historic England.

An internationally renowned creative phenomenon, art brut is described by Tate as “art that has a naive quality, often produced by people who have no artistic training or who have not worked within the conventional structures of art.” artistic production. It is created without an audience, usually by and for the artist himself.

In a press release, Historic England said: “The list recognizes Ron’s creation as an example of large-scale outsider art in England, a creative phenomenon of artists driven by their personal visions and often working compulsively, usually without formal training. and outside the influence of the mainstream art world.

Among the many fans of Gittins’ works is Jarvis Cocker, frontman of the indie band Pulp and patron of the campaign to preserve the property.

Reacting to the news in a statement released by Historic England, Cocker, who is also a patron of Ron’s Place, said: “A small number of people on this planet have known for some time that Ron’s Place is a very special place, but since then it’s now official: Ron’s Place has obtained listed status!

“The work of a unique man from the north of England has been recognized nationally. Overall even. Alleluia!!”

Williams is proud of her uncle’s accomplishments and hopeful about the impact he will have on future generations.

“He encouraged me to view being creative and unconventional as completely normal and I am grateful for that,” she said. “He never really held a job and rarely had a reliable income for long, but he had a wealth of imagination and creativity. We want to share this with other people and tell them to be creative, resourceful and see the potential in others and what you could get out of it.

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