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