Graham Sutherland, Welsh Landscape With Roads, oil on canvas, 1936
29 June - 15 September 2013, Abbot Hall
Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria
"Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) was one of the great British landscape painters and, during the 1940s and 50s, one of the most famous artists in this country. Initially inspired by the visionary landscapes of eighteenth and nineteenth-century artists such as William Blake and Samuel Palmer, Sutherland transcended his influences to create a vocabulary that was uniquely his own. This show highlights the brilliant power of Sutherland’s imagination and demonstrates the diverse ways in which he transformed his experience of his environment.
The exhibition consists of striking, otherworldly landscapes from throughout Sutherland’s career: early, meticulous etchings which owe a debt to masters such as Rembrandt, Whistler and Palmer, wonderfully fluid drawings and iconic paintings from the 1930s and 40s with their haunting forms, sinuous lines and daring compositions, and mysterious late landscapes, rich in colour and often monumental in scale."
Note: Encountering this exhibition announcement today, I thought:
1. Everything about Graham Sutherland is worth observing closely, just as he observed closely.
2. How fascinating it is that he received his training as an engraver and etcher and that he turned to painting only after the UK print market collapsed in 1930, a result of the Great Depression.
3. How much I would like to visit the Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal and Cumbria. Locked in place for a while, I'm looking forward to resuming travel, moving on through with Caroline, Jane and whomever we happen to meet.
Graham Sutherland, Estuary, oil on canvas, 1940
Music: Suedehead by Morrissey (Link)
