Wednesday, 18 September 2024

TIRZAH GARWOOD LECTURE NEWS!

Tirzah Garwood, Erskine Returning at Dawn, 1950, oil on canvas

I'm thrilled that my exhibition Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious will be opening at Dulwich Picture Gallery on 19 November. It's been a fascinating journey since I suggested the show to them three or so years ago, not least because so little study has been made of Garwood's work before. Her life is quite well-documented, thanks to her autobiography Long Live Great Bardfield (written 1942 and after, but only published recently) and to Margy Kinmonth's film Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War. But few outside a close circle of family, friends and fans know her wood engravings, marbled papers, model house constructions and paintings at all well.

So it's been exciting to bring together eighty-plus of these works (along with ten by her first husband, Eric Ravilious) and arrange them in what I hope is a helpful way. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and in 2018 did bring together Garwood and Ravilious in my exhibition In Relation: Nine Couples who Transformed Modern British Art at RWA Bristol. That experience persuaded me to include a few pertinent wood engravings and watercolours by Ravilious in the first half of the Garwood show; the artists' contrasting approaches to similar motifs are fascinating, and the comparison sheds valuable light on Garwood's creative development.

You'll have an opportunity to get to know Tirzah Garwood a bit better before the exhibition because I'm giving an online lecture on 1 October, which will be recorded and made available to ticket holders for the rest of the month. If you follow the link you should find all the info you need.

 



No comments: