Art exhibition celebrates amazing landscape of South Downs
November 8, 2022
Tess Viljoen, from Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, shares details of an art exhibition you won’t want to miss.
We are looking forward to new exhibition that opens at Pallant House Gallery this November. Sussex Landscape: Chalk, Wood and Water will celebrate Sussex as a source of inspiration for artists over the centuries.
Opening with Turner’s misty and ethereal view of Chichester canal towards the Cathedral, the exhibition traces different artists’ responses to the Sussex landscape – from its iconic chalk cliff coastline to the rolling expanse of the South Downs.
Artists were drawn to Sussex for different reasons. John Constable sought the fresh sea air at Brighton as treatment for his wife’s tuberculosis, but was inspired to create dramatic paintings of the sea and a turbulent sky. There were those for whom Sussex provided a place to experiment with different ways of living. During the First World War, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant created a life at Charleston near Lewes that pushed back against the strict social codes of the time. Then, they shocked many but have since become valued for their pioneering ideas and extraordinary creativity. Sussex provided both refuge and inspiration for abstract artist Ivon Hitchens, who moved to a small, traditional caravan just south of Petworth when his London studio was bombed in the Blitz. The landscape became his muse.
The exhibition takes as its themes the elements wood, water and chalk – captured in Eric Ravillious’ Chalk Paths, which will resonate to anyone who has walked the South Downs Way. You can see Ravilious’ woodcuts too, alongside those of his inspiration, William Blake who lived at Felpham where he penned the first line of a poem that began ‘and did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England’s mountains green’ and went on to become the lyrics to the well-known hymn Jerusalem.
In all over 50 artists are featured in the exhibition, which opens on 13 November and runs until 24 April.