Laura Knight at the Theatre
Laura Knight at the Theatre
Paintings and drawings of the ballet and the stage
21 March - 6 July 2008
The Lowry Galleries are part of an arts complex which includes a theatre nationally known for its dance and drama, making it an ideal setting for this major exhibition of art reflecting life on and off the stage by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970), a leading British Impressionist.
Many of the works in this exhibition have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before and certainly not in a venue that can also provide an opportunity to experience the type of theatrical spectacle which inspired it.
Curated by art historian Timothy Wilcox for The Lowry, this exhibition of Knight’s drawings and paintings from the theatre will include approximately 80 works drawn from public and private collections in the UK. Knight’s work explores the splendour of costume and scenery, but also, most memorably, quiet moments backstage away from the public eye.
At the time Knight was creating her work, Diaghilev was causing a sensation across Western Europe and his dancers and choreographers, costume and set designers included some of the greatest names of the day. These included Nijinsky, Leonide Masine, Robert Delaunay, Baskt and Picasso as well as composers Debussy, Poulenc and Stravinsky.
Knight obtained permission to work backstage at Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in London, attending their performances every night for weeks on end sparking off a love affair with the theatre which lasted until the end of her life.
Knight’s images of rehearsal studios, dressing rooms, the wings of the stage and curtain calls, underline her privileged position as an artist who sees more than the audience ordinarily sees: and yet her paintings and drawings do not dwell on this, but rather seek to lay bare the vulnerability of the performer. Through Knight, the fragility of the theatrical illusion becomes all the more apparent; and, for all her seeming strength of character as an artist, this precarious fantasy was evidently something she identified with strongly.
Knight and her husband (portrait painter Harold Knight) mixed in London society circles which also helped her gain access to these glittering, theatrical seasons. Her images of the ballet and the theatre have an instant appeal; they are often bold, brilliantly colourful and full of character.
Knight was just 10 years older then LS Lowry, so worked in the same artistic climate, yet her career took a very different path. She was a key member of the Newlyn colony of artists in Cornwall at the turn of the twentieth century, and in 1936 the first female elected a member of the Royal Academy since its foundation. An official war artist in WW II, she also gained permission to attend the Nuremberg trials in 1946. Although she made her reputation as a painter of glittering coastal landscapes and beach scenes, it was when she discovered the theatre that she found a subject as distinctive and individual as her own personality.
Dame Laura Knight was one of the most fashionable artists of her day whose reputation, like that of many artists, fell after her death but has considerably risen since. Today, she is recognised as a leading British Impressionist, associated with important artistic developments in the twentieth century.
Laura Knight at the Theatre shows how one art form can inspire another, bringing together visual art and the theatrical experience which inspired it. This adds an extra dimension to the exhibition which very few major galleries can provide.
Visitors to the exhibition at The Lowry can also enjoy ballets in one of the most contemporary settings from two of the finest ballet companies in the world. Birmingham Royal Ballet will perform Swan Lake in April and the Kirov return in May (tbc).
Posted on Thursday, 10 January 2008 under Press Galleries Press