RedHouse hosts stunning pictures of England’s 1966 World Cup win

1966 Gerry Cranham originals supported by Offside Sports Photography. Chroma © James Straffon 2013.

For any Englands fans still feeling deflated by the country’s recent failure in the Rugby Union World Cup, help may be at hand at a new exhibition in Harrogate.

Among the artworks on show in the exhibition called ‘Chroma - And The Defining Moment’ by James Straffon are stunning photographs from the 1966 World Cup of Geoff Hurst, Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks and co on their way to victory against West Germany in the final.

Held at RedHouse Originals gallery on Cheltenham Mount, the new collection is a collaboration between artist James Staffron and sports photographer Gerry Cranham.

London-based artist Straffon also worked with RedHouse on a previous collection - colourful portraits of famous cyclists during the Tour de France.

Some of the artworks were turned into a giant public mural on the side of The Factory building in the centre of Harrogate near Station Parade bridge.

Running until November 7, the new exhibition presents iconic moments from sporting history taken around the advent of colour television in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The new exhibition is inspired by three things:

1. The title itself comes from coverage of a sporting event on BBC 2 in 1967, the first-ever colour TV broadcast in the Europe. The event was Wimbledon.

2. The photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the pioneering French photographer who was master of the candid picture and inventor of photojournalism.

3. Sports photographer Gerry Cranham whose stylish photos of the likes of racing drivers James Hunt and Jackie Stewart, tennis players Billie Jean King and John Newcombe and, of course, the 1966 World Cup Final, have been used as the basis for Staffon’s subtly striking combination of painting and photography.