The paintings in this exhibition were made during 1989-1990, a moment when Derek Jarman was in the midst of creating his garden around Prospect Cottage in Dungeness.
During this period, he also made The Garden, 1990, a film in which the life of Christ was re-imagined as the life of a gay couple. His diaries from these years formed the publication Modern Nature, a lyrical rendition of the pain he experienced as he contended with AIDS, the anger he felt at the current political situation and the joy of working on the garden and spending time in the visually ‘postapocalyptic’ landscape of Dungeness. Jarman’s parallel artistic practices collide as never before during these years and the central theme of The Garden is introduced in this exhibition by two paintings: Flesh Tint, 1990 and Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 1989. The other paintings in the show are made with tar, which covers the canvas and in which is embedded a collection of objects, such as driftwood and barbed wire found on Dungeness beach, prayer books and a crucifix, as well as old photographs and feathers (which relate to a tarring-and-feathering episode in The Garden). As with the previous series of black paintings, from 1986, the creation of these paintings often had a performative element and Jarman describes the making of two of them in Modern Nature.
| Duration | 12 April 2019 - 22 June 2019 |
| Times | Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 6pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Amanda Wilkinson Gallery |
| Address | 1st Floor, 47 Farringdon Road, , London, EC1M 3JB |
| Contact | 442078310151 / info@amandawilkinsongallery.com / www.amandawilkinsongallery.com/ |