TIRZAH GARWOOD: BEYOND RAVILIOUS, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY, NOV 24
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| Cover for exhibition catalogue published by PWP/Bloomsbury, design by Lucy Morton |
I've been fascinated by Tirzah Garwood (1908-51) ever since I began researching her first husband Eric Ravilious (1903-42). The works I saw here and there seemed dark and strange, not at all like his and not really like anyone else's either. As a writer, her voice runs through the Ravilious in Pictures series I wrote for the Mainstone Press between 2009 and 2012, thanks to her daughter Anne Ullmann kindly sending me snippets of Garwood's autobiography. This was published in 2012 by Fleece Press as Long Live Great Bardfield, and is now in a paperback edition published by Persephone.
I was able to include Garwood alongside Ravilious in my 2018 exhibition In Relation: Nine Couples Who Transformed Modern British Art (see below), which got me thinking about their artistic relationship. Here were two brilliant creative minds that developed together. Ravilious was a youthful twenty-two when they met in 1926, Garwood a mature seventeen. Although he was her teacher, it wasn't long before her influence was felt in his work, for instance in his inclusion of her doll's house as a Lodging House in his Morley College murals (1928-30).
Through the first half of Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious, this creative relationship is explored in what I hope is an illuminating way. The second half, though, is all Garwood. It brings together for the first time almost all of her haunting, folk-art-inspired oil paintings and almost every one of her mesmerising collaged house constructions. I can't wait for people to see it!
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious is at Dulwich Picture Gallery until May 2025.
'Joyous, curious, inventive and droll,' Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious reviewed by Laura Cumming in The Observer
'How the Forgotten Art of Tirzah Garwood finally came to Light' Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious preview by Rachel Cooke for The Observer
'Varied and visionary', Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious reviewed by Florence Hallett in The i
'In from the Cold,' Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious preview by Florence Hallett for The Art Newspaper
'So much more than "Mrs Eric Ravilious"', Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious preview by Laura Freeman in The Times
Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious reviewed by Daisy Dawnay for World of Interiors
'Tirzah Garwood: unveiling a forgotten visionary', my introduction for ArtUK
SOUTINE | KOSSOFF AT HASTINGS CONTEMPORARY, SUMMER 2023
Soutine | Kossoff is the first museum exhibition to explore the artistic relationship between British artist Leon Kossoff (1926-2019) and Belarus-born painter Chaim Soutine (1893-1943). Undertaken with the full support of the Kossoff estate, it brings together important loans from public and private collections in the UK and overseas, providing a fascinating follow-up to The Barnes Foundation’s 2021 show Soutine / De Kooning.
The discovery of Soutine’s paintings in the early 1950s was a significant moment for Kossoff, who was already finding his way towards the kind of direct and expressive use of paint he saw in his predecessor’s work. Soutine grew up in Belarus before migrating to Paris as a young man, while Kossoff was born and raised in London, his parents having arrived there from Ukraine as children. Although their life experiences were very different, the two artists shared a Russian Jewish heritage which perhaps brought a particular cultural sensibility to their work. To create transcendent works from the stuff of everyday life became Kossoff’s mission, as it had been Soutine’s.
The main focus of Soutine | Kossoff is on the areas of interest shared by both artists: landscape and portraiture. The exhibition features seminal landscapes painted by Soutine in southern France in the early 1920s, with highlights including Paysage aux cyprès, c1922, and Cagnes Landscape with Tree, c1925-26 (Tate). From Kossoff come major paintings of railway junctions, building sites and other scenes of unexpected beauty found in north and north-west London, among them Willesden Junction, Summer, No.2, 1966 (Alfred East Art Gallery) and Demolition of the Old House, Dalston Junction, Summer, 1974 (Tate).
Visitors have a rare opportunity to view Kossoff’s stunning Nude on a Red Bed, 1972, alongside works such as his powerful Head of Seedo, 1964. A major group of Soutine portraits includes Le Petit Pâtissier, c1927, Young Woman in a White Blouse, c1923 (Courtauld Institute) and Le Valet de Chambre, c1927.
Soutine | Kossoff reviewed by Jackie Wullschläger in the Financial Times
Soutine | Kossoff reviewed by Waldemar Januszczak in The Times
Soutine | Kossoff reviewed by Beth Williamson for Studio International
Impasto Masters, review by JS Marcus in The Art Newspaper
Feel the Paint, review by Anthea Gerrie in The Jewish Chronicle
Soutine | Kossoff reviewed in ROSA magazine
Spirit in the Mass, review by Gareth Stevens, Hastings Independent
The Spirit in the Mass, review by Joe Gill, Morning Star
Soutine | Kossoff reviewed by Jude Montague, Artlyst
CHANGING TIMES: A CENTURY OF MODERN BRITISH ART AT HIGGINS, BEDFORD, AUTUMN/WINTER 2022
Changing Times: A Century of Modern British Art brought together more than 80 works from the Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art and Higgins’ own collection, with paintings, works on paper and sculpture from some of the biggest names in British art. From Higgins also came a dozen works on paper by major European artists. Changing Times: A Century of Modern British Art was the first large-scale exhibition since the reopening of The Higgins in 2013.
Among the highlights were several powerful monumental sculptures, including Riace Figure (1986) and Walking Madonna (1981) by Elisabeth Frink. There were lithographs by Eric Ravilious from his High Street series and a pair of his watercolours, Observation Post (1939) and Rye Harbour (1938). Lucien Freud’s stunning 1945 drawing Botanical Gardens hung alongside works such as John Craxton’s exquisite Yellow Estuary Landscape (1943).
A Cezanne lithograph, Large Bathers (1896), introduced a section devoted to figures in the landscape, which included Edward Burra’s Hop Pickers Who’ve Lost Their Mothers (1924), John Minton’s Hop Pickers (1945), the early Paul Nash watercolour Fruit Pickers (1916) and The Bathing Pool (1923) by Ethel Walker, a highly regarded interwar artist who deserves to be better known. The same is true of Frances Hodgkins, whose work also featured in Changing Times.
Another section explored the artist’s self-portrait, with David Hockney’s tongue-in-cheek etching Artist and Model alongside works by Kathe Kollwitz, William Roberts, John Bratby and John Bellany. Elsewhere the emphasis was on experiment and play, with Mark Gertler’s eerie still life The Doll (1914) and a lithograph from Marc Chagall’s Arabian Nights (1948) suite. Visitors saw Hockney prints depicting water alongside Howard Hodgkin’s colourful etching of Hockney’s swimming pool. Bold colour abounded in works by Sybil Andrews, Sonia Delaunay and Victor Pasmore, to name a few.
Changing Times reviewed by Museum Crush
Changing Times reviewed by Timeless Travels
Changing Times discussed by Victoria Partridge for Art UK
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| Yours truly at Higgins Bedford, pic by Victoria Partridge |
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| Changing Times installation photo by Victoria Partridge |
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| Unusual visitor to Changing Times, pic by Victoria Partridge |
SEAFARING AT HASTINGS CONTEMPORARY, SUMMER 2022
From fishermen to submariners, migrants to merchant seamen, people throughout the ages have shared the experience of being at sea. Seafaring explores the perils and pleasures of life at sea, while at the same time taking visitors on an art historical voyage from the early 19th century to the present.
At the heart of the exhibition is Lost at Sea, a show-within-a-show featuring three oil paintings by innovative contemporary artist Cecily Brown from her critically-acclaimed Shipwreck series. These are set alongside works by three Romantic artists who inspired her. Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault and J.M.W Turner were among the first painters to focus attention on the plight of shipwrecked mariners, ordinary people who found themselves at the mercy of the sea. Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa inspired another contemporary artist, Martin Kippenberger, to explore his own mortality in a set of lithographs.
The themes of shipwreck and rescue also play out across the wider Seafaring exhibition, as do those of voyage and migration, work and leisure, war and peace. The exhibition includes works based on artists’ observation of the sea and the creatures that inhabit it, and depictions of the people who, for different reasons, travel the sea by ship or boat. In the late 19th century James Tissot studied travellers embarking and disembarking at the Port of London, while Edward Burne-Jones painted a poignant portrait of a young wife longing for the safe return of her husband from sea. Early in the next, Frank Brangwyn portrayed trawlermen battling rough seas. World War Two gave artists such as Ronald Searle and Edward Ardizzone the opportunity to observe maritime life at first hand. Eric Ravilious briefly became the unofficial artist-in-residence aboard a training submarine. More recently Peter de Francia and Maggi Hambling have explored very different aspects of migration by sea, while Chris Orr offers a light-hearted view on life aboard an ocean liner that complements the elegant posters of the interwar years.
Seafaring exhibition at Hastings Contemporary from Hastings Contemporary on Vimeo.
Seafaring is at Hastings Contemporary until 25 Sept 2022
Seafaring reviewed by Francesca Peacock in the Telegraph (paywall)
Seafaring reviewed by Rick Dillon for Sussex Bylines
Seafaring reviewed by Jude Montague for Artlyst
Seafaring reviewed by Laura Gascoigne in The Spectator
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
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| Photo by Pete Jones |
DAVID REMFRY: WATERCOLOUR AT THE RWS, WHITCOMB ST W1, SUMMER 2022
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| David Remfry, Heat of the Night, 1992 |
The inaugural exhibition at the new Royal Watercolour Society Gallery in Whitcomb Street, London is a retrospective of work by David Remfry MBE RA RWS, as he celebrates his 80th birthday year. I curated the exhibition and wrote the essay for the accompanying book, a combined project which was fascinating and a lot of fun.
The exhibition of around 60 works, all created between 1979 and today, includes a selection of Remfry’s portraits, featuring such famous faces as actor Alan Cumming, fashion designer Stella McCartney and writer Quentin Crisp, his dancers and landscapes of New York.
Feted on both sides of the Atlantic as a painter and printmaker, Remfry (b.1942) is also renowned for his masterful, large-scale watercolours, often of people dancing, and New York cityscapes. He was Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools 2016-2018.
EXTRAORDINARY EVERYDAY: THE ART & DESIGN OF ERIC RAVILIOUS, SPRING 22
Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) was only 39 years old when he died on active service as a war artist, but he had achieved incredible things. 80 years after his death, Extraordinary Everyday: The Art and Design of Eric Ravilious guides visitors through his brilliant career, exploring in dazzling detail the work of the much-loved British painter, designer, ceramicist, book-illustrator, and wood-engraver.
Eric Ravilious loved the simple pleasures of everyday life (a mug of strong tea, a train ride) but also relished any opportunity for a celebration. He saw the extraordinary in the everyday and, at the same time, made everyday things seem extraordinary, whether this was in the design he made to decorate an egg cup or in his marvellous watercolours.
Extraordinary Everyday: The Art & Design of Eric Ravilious is at The Arc, Winchester from 18 Feb 2022 - info here. An elegant, illustrated catalogue is available from the shop.
Extraordinary Everyday reviewed by William Cook for The Critic
Peyton Skipwith discusses the exhibition in this piece for Country Life
Lots of people had things to say about the show on Twitter
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| Handle with care! pic Kirsty Rodda |
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| Installation view, Extraordinary Everyday |
SEASIDE MODERN: ART & LIFE ON THE BEACH, SUMMER 2021
This celebratory end-of-lockdown show explored an intriguing cultural phenomenon. In the first half of the 20th century, and particularly between the wars, the British seaside was both popular and fashionable. The young and sophisticated stripped off layers of Victorian prudery and cavorted on the sand in the latest daring swimwear. Artists hit the beach in search of new inspiration. And as governments introduced compulsory holidays for workers, people flocked to the seaside in ever-increasing numbers.
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| Seaside Modern, Hastings Contemporary, 2021 |
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| Seaside Modern, Hastings Contemporary, 2021 |
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| Seaside Modern, Hastings Contemporary, 2021 |
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| Seaside Modern, Hastings Contemporary, 2021 |
This
exhibition didn't only celebrate the best of Modern British, with top
notch works by LS Lowry, Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, Barbara Hepworth and
a host of other stars. It also explored the evolving story of our
relationship with the seaside. How were resorts advertised, and how did
ads develop as social attitudes changed? What did people wear on the
beach, and how did they behave? Look out for rarely seen archive photos
as well as posters and other artefacts.
Having spent
two weeks of every childhood summer at Sandbanks in Poole I have an
enduring love of the seaside. Putting this show together was been an
absolute treat.
From Twitter:
@dumvillerichard
Excellent exhibition - really good cross section of pieces and their accompanying captions were well written. Shop very tempting. All excellent value.
@gillianrussell3: This is a fantastic exhibition in a wonderful place - highly recommended.
@karenaverby: Thoroughly enjoyed the fabulous Seaside Modern: Art and Life on the Beach exhibition at @_art_on_sea #Hastings, curated by @jamesrussell66. Especially when we realised it continued upstairs too! The text/ captions accompanying each piece were brilliant. Get there if you can!
@rdodsworth1: Excellent exhibition 'Seaside Modern' @_art_on_sea curated by the talented @jamesrussell66 - well worth visiting for a variety of different takes on the seaside inc postcards, railway posters, woodcuts and more.
@sussexrivers: @_art_on_sea thank you for a lovely afternoon; #seasidemodern is a delight.
@susiemesure: This time yesterday I was zooming on a trail to Hastings for @jamesrussell66's excellent Seaside Modern exhibition at @_art_on_sea - wish I could go again today; should have stayed the night. Loved it and loved Hastings. Did I mention the brilliant art?
@dtylerauthor: Visited this exhib on Sat. Brilliant collection from Lowry to Ravilious.
and Instagram:
@neiljenningsfineart: A superb and hugely enjoyable exhibition at Hastings Contemporary.
Congratulations and thanks to James Russell and to everyone involved.
@jenartscott: A classic English summer’s day yesterday, dodging rain showers and getting buffeted by the wind! But I loved seeing the sea and @_art_on_sea and the fantastic ‘Seaside Modern’ exhibition beautifully curated by @jamesrussell66
@oliviahicksstudio: Lovely last day of my holiday to East Sussex taking in two favourite things, art and the landscape. Great to see the Seaside Modern exhibition at @_art_on_sea.
@addictedtothearts: Delightful exhibition @_art_on_sea brought to us by the very skilled @jamesrussell66 whose tastes clearly match my own as loved pretty much everything in the exhibition.
ERIC RAVILIOUS: DOWNLAND MAN, 2021/22
Since researching 'Ravilious in Pictures: Sussex and the Downs' a dozen years ago I've been wanting to curate an exhibition devoted to the artist and the landscape he studied from boyhood. In October 2021 I had my chance, when 'Eric Ravilious: Downland Man' opened at the Wiltshire Museum, Devizes. Featuring many of the artist's most celebrated downland watercolours alongside less well-known works, the exhibition attracted more than 10,000 visitors, who made the trip from London, the North and other far-flung regions.
We had a visit from the Duchess of Cornwall, which enabled me to say 'Your Royal Highness' for the first, and probably last time in my life, and there was plenty of positive response on Twitter and other social media. Because of Covid we didn't really have much of a press launch: the success of the show was chiefly down to word of mouth.
REFLECTION: BRITISH ART IN AN AGE OF CHANGE, SUMMER 2019
'This revelatory show juxtaposes old and new, domestic and unusual, to startling and unmissable effect', Rachel Cooke reviewing Reflection, The Observer, 18 August 2019
'Some of the greatest artists of the modern era', Alex Wood introducing Reflection, The Yorkshire Post, 15 August 2019
Exhibition of the Week in The Times (17 Aug), The Daily Telegraph (17 Aug), The Sunday Telegraph (18 Aug), The Morning Star (29 Aug)
Filmed interview about Reflection, That's TV Humber, 15 August 2019
'Rarely seen treasures', podcast discussing Reflection, Hull Is This, 15 August 2019
And some gratifying feedback from the punters:
'As there didn't seem to be a visitors' book at the Ferens, I am writing to say what a fantastic exhibition you have put together. The range and quality of the exhibits is excellent but what particularly impressed me were the curator's comments. They were so insightful,accessible, thought-provoking and concise - totally devoid of the often reams of pretentious verbage that often accompany painting.' Ms S, Sept 2019
'The visitor worked with artists on the Welsh Border. She very much wanted us to pass on her comments about Reflection... She thought the curation of the exhibition was fantastic. She loved the information boards and thought they were the best she had ever seen. She thought they contained appropriate and useful information without making the viewer feel ignorant about the artwork or artist, and not at all highbrow. She thought the exhibition amongst one of the best she had seen throughout the UK and all for free!' Gallery staff, Oct 2019
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| Installation view, 'Reflection' |
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| Installation view, 'Reflection' |
EDWARD BAWDEN, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY, SUMMER 2018
"Dulwich Picture Gallery shows timeless appeal of a great artist and designer." Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard, 23 May 2018
"An optimistic, feel-good collection," Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2018
"A much-loved maker of marks," Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Alex O'Connell, The Times, 24 May 2018
"A thoroughly jolly affair," Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Martin Gayford, Spectator, 9 June 2018
"As this exhibition shows, Bawden’s watercolours – their marriage of tradition and innovation a highpoint of British modernism – are due another look." Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Florence Hallett, 1843 Magazine, 30 May 2018
"A pleasingly humorous show," Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Michael Glover, Independent, 23 May 2018*
"This is an exhibition for families. Bawden's work is humorous, colourful, vibrant and brimming with energy." Edward Bawden at Dulwich, Angels and Urchins, May 2018
"The Serious Charm of Edward Bawden," Edward Bawden at Dulwich reviewed by Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books, 15 July 2018
*This one isn't especially friendly, but in a way I'm glad Bawden is able to provoke a hostile reaction...
IN RELATION: NINE COUPLES WHO TRANSFORMED MODERN BRITISH ART
RWA BRISTOL, SUMMER 2018
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| exhibition catalogue available from publishers, Sansom & Co |
'Another inspired - and inspiring - exhibition, beautifully curated! Thank you.' EF, 12.7.18
'Very interesting exhibition...' Anon, 14.7.18
'Wonderful idea - a new perspective on these artists and the times they lived in - great collection!' Anon, 17.7.18
'Excellent concept, well selected and well displayed. Thank you!' Anon, 22.7.18
'Merveilleuse exposition, merci!' Anon, 1.8.18
'Excellent exhibition!! One of the best so far in 2018.' DB, 5.8.18
'So interesting - wonderful to see the work of the women!' Anon, 9.8.18
'A fabulous original exhibition. Full of women's work too, hurrah!' Anon, 11.8.18
'A superbly curated exhibition - the unobtrusive but suggestive notes to various works are a particular delight.' T, 19.8.18
'Lovely exhibition, it really inspired me.' J 19.8.18
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| Installation view, 'In Relation' |
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| Installation view, 'In Relation' |
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| Installation view, 'In Relation' |
CENTURY, HASTINGS CONTEMPORARY (THEN JERWOOD GALLERY), 2016-17
"...more to delight than disturb."
'Century' reviewed by Caroline Bugler, Country Life, 7 Dec 2016
"The Jerwood Gallery's exhibition of works by 100 modern British artists is sprightly, uplifting and as bracing as a dip in the English channel."
'Century' at Jerwood Gallery reviewed by Harry Mount, Mail on Sunday, 27 Nov 2016
A "joyous and playfully curated sweep through 20th-century British art."
'Century' at Jerwood Gallery reviewed by Emily Spicer, Studio International, 16 Nov 2016
"...an exhibition that perfectly encapsulates the most exciting time for Modern British art, exploding the typical chronological view to show artists looking forward and backwards to create new and radical work."
'Century' at Jerwood Gallery reviewed by Samuel Spencer, Blouin Artinfo, 27 Oct 2016
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| Installation view, 'Century' |
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| Installation view, 'Century' |
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| Installation view, 'Century' |
RAVILIOUS, DULWICH PICTURE GALLERY, 2015
"...a joy from start to finish."
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by Richard Dorment, The Daily Telegraph, April 2015
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by Nancy Durrant, The Times (subscription), April 2015
"Exhilarating, enthralling and outstandingly beautiful"
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by Laura Cumming, The Observer, April 2015
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by Martin Gayford, The Spectator, April 2015
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by Martin Coomer, Time Out, April 2015
'Ravilious at Dulwich reviewed by Waldemar Januszczak, The Sunday Times (subscription), April 2015
'Ravilious at Dulwich' reviewed by Eye Magazine, April 2015
'Ravilious' at Dulwich reviewed by The Learned Pig, April 2015
'Ravilious at Dulwich' reviewed by The Economist, April 2015
PEGGY ANGUS: DESIGNER, TEACHER, PAINTER (CO-CURATOR WITH SARA COOPER), TOWNER, EASTBOURNE, 2014
Peggy Angus: Designer, Teacher, Painter reviewed by Sarah Snaith, Creative Review, Sept 2014
Potato prints, paintings & the Soviet Union: the real Miss Jean Brodie - review of Peggy Angus book, Laura Freeman, Spectator, July 2014
In the Full Force of Life - review of Peggy Angus exhibition by Ruth Guilding, Country Life magazine, July 2014
Peggy Angus, Design's Forgotten Warrior - Rachel Cooke, The Observer, July 2014
Beside the Seaside with Peggy Angus, BBC Antiques Roadshow blog, July 2014
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| Installation view, 'Peggy Angus' |
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| Installation view, 'Peggy Angus' |
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