The Art of Walter Sickert
‘The Father of Modern British Art’

Bringing together a selection of more than twenty-five of Sickert’s paintings and related drawings, including his most famous painting “Ennui” and sixteen other loans from Tate, this is certain to be one of the largest and most prestigious exhibitions of his work available for public view at this time.

Divided into five main sections, featuring other major works from Pallant House Gallery, Worthing Museum and Art Gallery and private collections, the exhibition at the award-winning gallery in Surrey presents a mini-retrospective in which to explore the artist’s paintings, personal items such as his paint palette, sketchbooks and letters, and the techniques he used throughout a career that spanned over the 19^th and 20^th centuries. From Music Halls, City Scenes and Landscapes, Nudes and Paintings from Photographs to Domestic Life in seedy suburban interiors; visitors will have the opportunity to gain insight into the mind of the artist whom many regard as the last of the Victorian artists and a major precursor of Modern British Art.

Walter Sickert was born in Munich, Germany in 1860 to Danish parents, Sickert emigrated with his family to London in 1868. As a painter, etcher, writer and teacher, Sickert’s career lasted sixty years. He spent a few years in France and Italy, but remained in England for most of his working life up to his death in 1942. From the late 1880s onwards Sickert was one of the first British artists to use subjects drawn from the popular music hall and theatre, from newspaper photographs and from unglamorous domestic life.

As an artist who became fixated throughout his life on what to paint not how to paint, the subject matter in Sickert’s work is hugely varied, but with a common intrigue; to explore the darker, seedier side to life, that which might be viewed by the ‘common man’ from the street. Sickert therefore went against the grain of his English contemporaries and while they were painting the niceties and gentilities of Edwardian and Victorian Britain, he chose to omit the glamour and opt for the sordid and unconventional of subjects; thus developing a sparse, understated style, uniquely his own.

Coined by Curator of The Lightbox, Michael Regan, as the ‘Father of Modern British Art’, Sickert’s paintings are regarded today as some of the most significant contributions to Modern British Art.

 “Sickert is a key figure in the development of Modern British Art. He provides the link between Edwardian painting, post-war art and Modern British and is highly important. He had a sophisticated painting technique and was a fantastic print maker and by capturing society from an alternative perspective, his work can be said to be an earlier version and precursor to the post-war kitchen sink and post-war realism that expressed itself through domestic scenes and influenced post-war artists like Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach.”

The Art of Walter Sickert will be complimented by a series of works from the contemporary artist, Keith Coventry, whose rose-tinted paintings, “Echoes of Albany”, a 21^st century take on Sickert’s creation of “Echoes”, will be on display outside the Main Gallery. In addition to this “In Conversation with Keith Coventry” with Curator of Tate Robert Upstone, where artist and curator will discuss Sickert’s work and influence, will take place on 20^th May 2010.

The Lightbox is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10.30am – 5.00pm and Sunday 11.00am – 5.00pm. Entrance to the building is free. Entrance to The Art of Walter Sickert exhibition is £3 (includes an exhibition guide). For more information please visit www.thelightbox.org.uk   

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For further press information contact Hannah Vernon, Press and PR Officer on 01483 737810 / 07894949861 E-mail: hannah.vernon@thelightbox.org.uk