Glyn Philpot at Pallant House
May 18 2022
Picture: via The Guardian
In The Guardian, Hettie Judah reviews (and gives five stars to) a new exhibition on Glyn Philpot at Pallant House in Chichester. The show casts a new light on Philpot, who has (in my view at least) been unjustly ignored in the sweep of modern British art:
Philpot appears an artist – and a man – pulled in several directions. A practising Roman Catholic and gay, mesmerised by performance and masquerade, he allowed his interest in the male nude to play out in (at times awkward) symbolist works on classical themes. Influenced by developments in Paris and Berlin, in 1930 he experimented with modernism, painting the chrome, glass and glow of the transforming city. Indebted to Picasso, Cocteau and Matisse, Philpot’s new style was less appreciated in London.
His interest in Black subjects was unusual for its time. Some were performers: Portrait of Paul Robeson as Othello (1930) was rediscovered during research for this exhibition (an earlier painting of the African American tenor Roland Hayes singing is still unaccounted for). In Paris, he painted two portraits of Julien Zaïre, a Martiniquan who performed in cabaret as Tom Whiskey [above]. Positioned against the tubular furniture of a chic interior, Zaïre is the acme of handsome sophistication in black tie and pomade.
The show runs till 23rd October, details here. There's a good overview of Philpot's work on ArtUK here.
