19 Comments
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Annette Gordon's avatar

Lovely quote from George Eliot.

Must go and see this exhibition at Dulwich PG

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Gill's avatar

Oh my goodness - I went last week and was totally captivated, so much so that I bought the exhibition catalogue, a pretty rare occurrence for me.

I have to praise the Dulwich PG for another stunner of an exhibition - the last one I saw that seized my heart so hard was also there - Helen Frankenthaler 'Radical Beauty'.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Dulwich is wonderful, I agree! I missed the Frankenthaler, unfortunately. So glad you liked the Garwood exhibition. I'm going again in a couple of weeks! The catalogue is excellent.

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Rita Fennell's avatar

Great review thank you, so much depth! Just a little note, is it worth putting the dates of the exhibition on do we know whether it’s still running? I’m going!

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Thank you! And yes, how stupid of me! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll amend as soon as I’m back on my computer.

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Peter C. Meilaender's avatar

I’ll be in London for a few months in early 2025 and have been looking forward to seeing this at the DPG. Thanks for the review.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Hope you enjoy it!

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June Girvin's avatar

She was a really interesting artist and has been sadly under-appreciated for years. I watched a documentary on Ravilious on Sky Arts the other evening - it mentioned Tirzah only as his wife.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Yes, we watched that too! It's a good documentary but it is a *Ravilious* documentary, when there is so much more to be said.

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Nicolas Sutro's avatar

Isn’t her work fascinating!? As you say charm with strangeness, precision with interiority.

As other replies here have said, I find her work enchanting (the Hornet and Wild Rose in your piece, for example, is gripping)?

Cheers for such a great piece, man.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Thank you! I bought her autobiography in the exhibition shop and I'm looking forward to learning more about her, and about how her mind worked. The intensity of the vision - for all its oddness with familiar, ordinary things - is really remarkable

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Alison Baxter's avatar

I'm so looking forward to seeing this. Some of her work was included in an exhibition at Compton Verney a few years ago and I was really drawn to it. I think I might ask for her autobiography as one of my Christmas presents

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Hold you enjoy it! Let me know what you think. I bought the autobiography myself at the exhibition shop with a view to settling down with it over Christmas.

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Anna Sayburn Lane's avatar

I've just got home from the exhibition and feel completely enchanted. A whole world of fresh, vital, mysterious and yet familiar works, across a plethora of media. Loved the boxed houses; the toy-shop worlds that seem somehow to be watching...I can't wait to start reading her autobiography (by the fab Persephone Press) which I somehow came out of the gift shop clutching.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

So glad you enjoyed it! Enchantment is exactly the word, isn't it? I came out clutching the autobiography too…

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Anna Sayburn Lane's avatar

I suspect Persephone Books knew exactly what they were doing in sponsoring the exhibition!

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Oh yes! I hadn’t noticed that. Good for them!

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Rona Maynard's avatar

What an enchanting discovery. You’ve sent me on a virtual tour of Garwoodland. Her work reminds me of illustration, yet she alone knows the story.

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Mathew Lyons's avatar

Thank you! And I know exactly what you mean. I'm not sure where you are in the world, but if you can't get to the exhibition, the catalogue is very good - although it doesn't *quite* do justice to the boxed and collaged houses.

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