SICKERT: The Theatre of Life
In 1934, Virginia Woolf described Walter Sickert as ‘probably the best painter now living in England’. Among the sources of inspiration which sustained him over a long career, none won him so much acclaim and infamy as the human face and body. After a short period as an actor, he spent his life fashioning new identities for himself and his sitters. Eight decades after his death, SICKERT: The Theatre of Life brings together over forty of his figure paintings, including some of the most original works executed by a British artist in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many of these works have not been exhibited since the artist’s lifetime.
The exhibition spans the full length of Sickert’s career, with paintings loaned from museums and private collections. Early works include his music-hall scenes and interiors from Venice and Camden Town. In addition to Sickert’s First World War masterpiece, The Integrity of Belgium (Government Art Collection), visionary paintings from the 1920s and ’30s will include The Plaza Tiller Girls – a group of works depicting Jazz Age dancers brought together by Piano Nobile for the first time.
SICKERT: The Theatre of Life has been curated with Richard Shone. An accompanying publication features essays by Richard Shone and Wendy Baron with first-hand accounts of Sickert by Basil Jonzen and Duncan Grant.
For further information and the press release contact the gallery.
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Late Sickert: Camaïeu, Cameras, Canvas
Art History in Focus | Gallery Talk & Instagram Live 20 Oct 2021During the First World War, Sickert had a change of heart. For thirty years he had consistently painted on a dark underlayer of paint, building up to the highlights and experimenting with a variety of approaches within the confines of this approach. Throwing caution to the wind and dispensing with a lifelong practice, in 1914 he went into reverse and adopted a new method: painting on a light ground and building up to the shadows. The scale and palette of his work in the 1920s and '30s changed remarkably, and...Read more -
Hatchards Book Launch
Sickert: The Theatre of LIfe 26 Oct 2021Piano Nobile is delighted to announce the launch of Sickert: The Theatre of Life at Hatchards Piccadilly. The event will include readings by Richard Shone and Wendy Baron, both of whom have contributed to the publication. In addition to scholarly essays by both authors, Wendy Baron's memoir about her 'life with Sickert' is published here for the first time. This richly illustrated publication includes catalogue entries by Richard Shone which present new research about the artist and his sitters, and an article about a newly discovered work by Wendy Baron....Read more
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London Review of Books reviews Walter Sickert The Theatre of Life
London Review of Books, Vol. 44. Read more -
Sickert’s coster girls: some American connections by Luke Farey
The Burlington Magazine Read more
