Showing posts with label Ravilious. Show all posts

Tuesday, 11 February 2025

ERIC RAVILIOUS: CHANGING VIEWS

Eric Ravilious, Tea at Furlongs, 1939, watercolour

Hello!

To mark the tenth anniversary of my 2015 exhibition Ravilious at Dulwich Picture Gallery I’m giving a celebratory double lecture online, 2 x 50 minutes with an interval.

As well as introducing the life and work of Eric Ravilious to people who are not that familiar with the artist, the longer format will allow time to introduce some less well-known work and to explore some favourite watercolours, wood engravings and ceramic designs in more depth.

Since curating the Dulwich show I’ve put on two further Ravilious exhibitions as well as the current Dulwich exhibition, Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious. I’ve also spent a couple of years working on the catalogue raisonné of Ravilious watercolours, a project I hope to pick up again this year.

The upshot of all this is that my view of this enigmatic artist has changed (and continues to change), and I’m looking forward to sharing some of my research into his influences, techniques, etc, with you later in the month.

Researching Ravilious can be frustrating, given the lack of cold, hard facts about him and his work, but it’s fun to follow a hunch and see where it leads...

If you'd like to come along to Eric Ravilious: Changing Views, tickets are available via Eventbrite.

Monday, 14 March 2022

Inspired by the Boy: In Conversation with Angie Lewin

A Ravilious Coronation Mug features in this linocut by Angie Lewin

I'm looking forward to joining artist and designer Angie Lewin on March 23 for an online event exploring her career-long fascination for Eric Ravilious. With Kirsty Rodda of Hampshire Cultural Trust keeping us in order, we will spend an hour looking in-depth at Rav's achievements in wood engraving, watercolour and ceramic design. I always enjoy hearing other people's views on artists I admire, doubly so when the views are coming from someone as talented and insightful as Angie.

We will have some slides to share so you can see what we're referring to, but this is definitely a conversation rather than a lecture: we're bound to end up venturing down some unexpected avenues!

If you'd like to join us please visit The Arc Winchester website for details and tickets.

Monday, 22 November 2021

Dates for December!

A couple of lecture dates for December:

Eric Ravilious: Downland Man is on 2nd December, via zoom, hosted by the Wiltshire Museum. Tickets and information are available on the museum's website.

The chalk downland of southern England inspired Eric Ravilious (1903-42) to produce some of his finest watercolours, but his fascination for the Downs ran deeper. Until January 2022 Wiltshire Museum is hosting Eric Ravilious: Downland Man, the first exhibition to explore the relationship between an extraordinary artist and designer, and the landscape he loved. In this wide-ranging online lecture curator I'll be introducing the themes of the exhibition and looking in-depth at The Westbury Horse and similar treasures, some well-known, others rarely seen.

Ravilious, Bawden... and Boucher is at 1.30pm on 11 December, and its LIVE, one of several talks at this year's Bloomsbury Jamboree. The event is at the Art Worker's Guild, WC1N 3AT, and tickets are available from eventbrite.

To celebrate the forthcoming publication of the new Mainstone Press edition of Boutiques, I will be delving into the life and career of French artist and illustrator Lucien Boucher. Published in 1925, Boucher's colourful survey of Parisian shops is one of the most remarkable books of this time, and a major influence on Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. As well as exploring Boucher's marvellous illustrations we'll be taking a virtual tour around the Paris he knew and loved, so if you fancy some pre-Christmas flaneurism, do book a ticket!

Friday, 16 July 2021

Seaside Modern Lecture

Eric Ravilious, Mackerel Sky, 1938, watercolour

LINK FOR TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seaside-modern-art-and-life-on-the-beach-tickets-163634325673

Whether you've been to Seaside Modern at Hastings Contemporary, are planning to go or wish you could go but can't, you might enjoy my online lecture on 22 July. It includes many of the artworks in the show along with works that were either unavailable or couldn't be squeezed in, and there are more archive photos and that kind of thing.

When I was putting the exhibition together I realised that there were two stories to be told, neither of which I'd considered before; two interwoven stories. The first is about people in Britain and their relationship with the beach, which changed from being predominantly a working environment in the early 19th century to being a place to relax. The numbers of people who were able to enjoy a day or more at the beach every year went up and up and up until the 1970s, when we started jetting to the Med instead. Women were liberated from the bathing machine...

Artists too joined the rush to the coast, not only the more conventional painters of views but some of the most adventurous modern artists of the day. Paul Nash enjoyed two periods of intense creativity by the sea. Ravilious made his name with some stunning work on the coast. Moore and Hepworth were inspired by the erosion of stones.

Henry and Irina Moore, Ben Nicholson, Mary Jenkins,
Happisburgh 1931

I put together this lecture in part because it allows me to explore these themes in different ways, and to show works and archive material that were unavailable or just didn't fit. I hope you'll join me!

Seaside Modern: Art and Life on the Beach - online lecture, 7.30pm, 22 July (recording available for ticket holders), tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seaside-modern-art-and-life-on-the-beach-tickets-163634325673