Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury, 9 November 2024 until 27 April 2025, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

SussexWorld

Dive into the life and work of Dora Carrington – a remarkable artist who defied social norms with her bohemian lifestyle.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt,

00:04Griep Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers.

00:06Lovely this afternoon to speak to Ariane Banks,

00:08who is co-curator of the new exhibition

00:11Dora Carrington Beyond Bloomsbury,

00:13which is currently at Pallent House Gallery

00:15in Chichester, running until next April,

00:18I believe, and we must call her Carrington

00:20rather than Dora, mustn't we?

00:22But goodness, what a tragic but fascinating

00:25and in some ways happy character.

00:27There's everything there, isn't there,

00:28in this very complex individual.

00:30Yes, I mean, we don't like to think of her as tragic,

00:33although she did take her own life at the very,

00:36in 1932, when the love of her life

00:39lit and straight she died.

00:41She lived life, she lived her short 38-year-old

00:44life to the full.

00:46She lived with great passion, great intensity,

00:49and that you can see in all her works,

00:51particularly in her paintings, which have

00:53an extraordinary density to them.

00:55They have a real, they have so much in them.

00:59She was a brilliant draughtswoman,

01:01but she was also an intensely feeling human being,

01:05and that really comes through.

01:07All her paintings are imbued, I think,

01:09with her love of life and her intense feelings

01:12about either the people or the landscapes

01:14that she painted.

01:16So you imagine an exhibition about someone

01:18who died at the age of 38 isn't going to be

01:20particularly fun, but this is, isn't it?

01:23You're talking about a great thing which shines through.

01:26She had enormous sense of humour.

01:28She had a great sense of sort of fun,

01:30and she teased all her friends mercilessly.

01:34And there are drawings and letters in the exhibition

01:38and little cartoons that she made,

01:41which are just joyful.

01:43They're funny, they're wry, and they're very

01:48sort of subversive in a way.

01:50She was a subversive character from the off.

01:53And that's part of the complexity,

01:55because alongside the joyfulness and the exuberance

01:57and everything, the intensity of her feeling,

02:00there is the fact that she was extraordinarily

02:02diffident about her work, and the sad thing is

02:05she destroyed so much of it, didn't she?

02:07Well, she destroyed a certain amount of it,

02:09but luckily we do have some really stunning

02:13pictures left, and we have gathered the very best

02:17of those on the walls of Pallard House.

02:20They are masterpieces in their own right, I think.

02:24And given this diffidence, what would she make

02:27of this 90 years later, more than 90 years later,

02:30do you think?

02:31That's a very, very good question,

02:33and my co-curator and I have often discussed this.

02:37You know, I think she would be sneakily pleased

02:40because it shows what extraordinary talent

02:43she did have, but her diffidence during her lifetime

02:47was misplaced.

02:48And now there will be a whole new generation

02:51waking up to this very remarkable woman,

02:54remarkable on every level, remarkable as a person,

02:57remarkable as a rebel, remarkable as a painter,

03:01and a woman of enormous life and passion.

03:06Fantastic.

03:07You'll have to take that, sneakily pleased

03:09as a compliment, won't you?

03:11It was lovely to speak to you, and it was a fabulous exhibition.

03:14Thank you very much.

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