{"id":9742,"date":"2023-09-25T09:59:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-25T09:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=9742"},"modified":"2023-09-25T10:02:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T10:02:50","slug":"its-a-cover-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=9742","title":{"rendered":"It’s a Cover-up!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leeds Art Gallery, till 5 November<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Praxitella\/Bridgeman Images<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

I caught up with an exhibition that escaped me in London while on an art\u2019n\u2019lunch jolly to Leeds. All I knew before seeing it was that it was about a painting by Wyndham Lewis, whose work I like, even though he held some rather suspect political views at one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned out that \u2018Things Left Unsaid: Percy Wyndham Lewis, Iris Barry, Helen Saunders and the Story of Praxitella<\/em>\u2019 was an exhibition with a theme dear to damesnet<\/strong> \u2019s heart: the obliteration of women\u2019s art \u2013 in this case literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praxitella<\/em>, one of the most striking examples of Modernist portraiture is also a veil comprehensively drawn (or in this case painted) over a rare example of a Vorticist painting by a woman. The exhibition explores the creation of this work through analysis of the canvas and examines the wider cultural context in which the artists in question were working. It\u2019s a \u2018deep dive\u2019 approach that is intensely satisfying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remarkable detective work is down to two students at the Courtauld Institute, Rebecca Chipkin and Helen Kohn, who paired up on an interdisciplinary project to explore a painting from a historical and a technical angle. They chose Praxitella<\/em>, a portrait of Iris Barry (Wyndham Lewis\u2019s partner from 1918 to 1921). Which has been in the collection of Leeds Art Gallery since 1945.<\/p>\n\n\n

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But raised lines on the painting that did not form part of the composition suggested that there was another painting underneath. X-ray photography revealed that this was a painting entitled Atlantic City<\/em>,* by Wyndham Lewis\u2019s one-time close friend and co-signatory of the Vorticist manifesto, Helen Saunders. The painting could be identified because it had been reproduced in black and white in the short-lived Vorticist magazine BLAST.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samples taken from the edge of the painting showed that Saunders had used a wide range of pigments in Atlantic City<\/em>, a \u2018brightly coloured, richly painted and visually striking work\u2019, but when the researchers tried to analyse other areas of the canvas they found that the painting had been covered over in a thick layer of white paint before the canvas was reused. They have posed the question as to whether Wyndham Lewis was the culprit, but there is no conclusive evidence that it was him. Still, it is tempting to think he did. Very tempting\u2026 especially as he had terminated his close friendship with Helen Saunders abruptly, leaving her distraught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Saunders and Iris Barry had long careers independently, and part of this exhibition aims to introduce us to their work away from the orbit of Wyndham Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Saunders continued to paint until her death in 1963, moving away from Vorticism towards realism. Iris Barry became a respected film critic, and the first curator of the film department at New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both women wrote poetry (Barry initially under the tutelage of Ezra Pound) and moving excerpts from their work, much of it Imagist in style, are on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Things Left Unsaid\u2019 is a wholly satisfying exhibition: concise enough to focus on intently, full of striking images, and replete with fascinating personal and cultural details that make a visit a rich learning experience too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s on till 5 November \u2013 and the elegant Tiled Hall Caf\u00e9 comes highly recommended too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Atlantic City\/The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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