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Hughes was anxious that this show should not be a mere re-enactment of

Hughes was anxious that this show should not be a mere re-enactment of earlier displays of geometric abstract art: he and his exhibiting colleagues, who were drawn from diverse backgrounds and a wide age-group, collectively committed themselves to extending their range by using new materials and working on a large, in some cases environmental scale. Arriving at the Slade School of Art on a part-time basis in 1970, he took over the running of the Graduate School from William Townsend in 1973, and designed the new graduate programme, involving experimental studies, for the move into the Pearson Building in 1975. Hughes’s own contribution was a tranquil room, bordered on four sides by impeccable white reliefs.His commitment as a teacher also intensified at this stage. By the mid-1960s, he had begun to develop his own constructive idiom, and was showing at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, as well as contributing to the Salon des Realites Nouvelles in Paris.In this period, he also laid the foundation of his career as a teacher: he taught on a part-time basis at the School of Architecture, in the Polytechnic of Central London, and at Bath Academy of Art, as well as at the Chelsea School of Art, where the constructive artists John Ernest and Anthony Hill were among his colleagues.His own style, as an artist and group organiser, came clearly into view when he co-founded the Systems Group in 1969 with Jeffrey Steele, and began the extensive process of practical work and discussion which culminated in the Arts Council “Systems” exhibition of 1972-73.

His training as an artist began in Manchester, at the Regional College of Art, and continued at the Royal College of Art, where he was one of the students selected to assist in the painting of large-scale murals in the Law Courts, and inclined in his own work to Socialist Realism. No British artist did more, over this period, to foster the international connections implicit in the common heritage of European Modernism.Hughes’s adult life began with war service as a radio operator in the Royal Navy. The combination of pure structural logic with a settled serenity, and above all the fact that this was a building dedicated to the life and practice of a community, must have spoken powerfully to him.
Malcolm Hughes was that rare thing among British artists: a creative thinker who openly rejected individualism and sought to foster collective strategies for the production and display of works of art. Revisiting the Cistercian Abbey of Fontfroide in Languedoc in the late summer of this year, I was reminded all the time of the enthusiasm with which Malcolm Hughes had spoken of his own recent visit.

“We need to make sure that we have lots of outstanding candidates,” explains Mr Moore.. Malcolm Hughes, artist and teacher: born Manchester 22 July 1920; married 1947 Joan Barkworth (one son, one daughter; marriage dissolved), 1997 Jean Spencer; died London 19 September 1997. The commission is, for example, setting up a link with the top 25 US business schools so that British applicants will automatically have access to its Internet web site. As John Mueller, chairman and chief executive of the UK arm of the diversified US industrial company 3M, puts it: “The scheme gives us access to some of the brightest young minds around.”Such enthusiasm is highly encouraging to James Moore, executive director of the Fulbright Commission, who is seeking to convince more companies that supporting a programme in this way can complement their existing activities in the increasingly complex area of executive development.In addition to converting companies to the benefits of the scheme, he is seeking to make more would-be students aware of the opportunities of gaining awards that cover air fares to and from the USt and maintenance costs for an academic year. But, as Michael Prideaux, director of group public affairs at BAT, explains, there are potential advantages for the sponsor, too. He sees it as a way of promoting BAT – which owns the Farmers insurance business in the United States as well as Allied Dunbar, Eagle Star and the asset management company Threadneedle in the UK – to US post-graduate students.It is not expected that the sponsored student will end up working for the sponsoring company, though BAT is holding out the possibility of its students doing internships, and other companies are optimistic that the association will put them in touch with prospective employees. Mr Verma, for instance, hopes that the programme will help equip him with the skills required to achieve his goal of running his own company, while Mr Sanders is looking for preparation for “leadership in the financial or commercial world”.

Now – thanks to an award from fellow investment bank Salomon Brothers – Richard is about to begin an MBA at California’s Stanford Business School.
Salomons is one of 23 sponsors of awards organised by the Fulbright Commission, an organisation that last year celebrated its 50th year of encouraging international educational exchange under the simple philosophy of bringing the best of American youth to the UK and the best of British to the United States. Others include BAT Industries, which is helping to send Sanjeev Verma, until now a derivatives trader with NatWest Markets, to study for an MBA at Pennsylvania’s Wharton school.The benefits of the programme to the individual are obvious. Over the coming weeks some of “the best and the brightest” of young British and American business people will be crossing the Atlantic to embark upon post-graduate courses at some of the two countries’ most prestigious business schools. By any standards, Richard Sanders is a force to be reckoned with.