Media release: 8 January 2024

Opens this Saturday 13 January at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum

  • Dame Laura Knight: I Paint Today is on show at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum from 13 January until 30 June 2024
  • Exhibition celebrates the life and work of Dame Laura Knight and her love of the Worcestershire countryside
  • Includes works from Imperial War Museum plus new acquisitions to the Worcester City Collection

The new exhibition Dame Laura Knight: I Paint Today opens at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum this Saturday 13 January and runs until Sunday 30 June 2024.

Curated by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, I Paint Today pays homage to this significant artist who was the first female artist welcomed into the Royal Academy and whose love of Worcestershire and the Malvern Hills inspired her art throughout the later years of her life.

I Paint Today brings a stirring selection of Knight’s work to Worcestershire and focuses on key events, characters and achievements which helped to shape her life and career. Works from the Worcester City collection will be joined by loans from regional and national collections including the Imperial War Museum, to help tell the story of a woman who grew out of the Victorian era and developed and adapted her craft through a period of tumultuous change.

From 1933 Laura Knight and her husband, Harold were frequent visitors to Malvern and fell in love with the dramatic landscape of the Malvern Hills which became a subject of her much-loved paintings. Knight claimed she did her best landscapes in Malvern and her paintings of this period demonstrate her love of the countryside in all seasons. She would start her day with a walk over the Malvern Hills, using make-shift studios around the hills to create from, and then meet fellow artists to ‘take the water’.

Through the 1920s and 1930s Knight was known for painting theatrical scenes. The Yellow Dress, a much-loved artwork in the Worcester City collection and featured in the exhibition, shows the costume-making studio at the Royal Shakespeare Company, capturing colour and artistry with thick brushstrokes.

At the outbreak of World War Two, Knight enlisted with the War Artists Advisory Committee. From the slopes of the Malvern Hills, she watched the bombings of Coventry and Birmingham. Laura painted many iconic images of the war including a pictorial record of the Nuremburg trials.

Despite moving back to London after Harold’s death, familiar echoes of the Malvern landscape that Dame Laura Knight loved so much can be detected in her paintings right up until the end of her life.

Deborah Fox, Museums Worcestershire Senior Curator commented: “Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum is committed to bringing great art and artists to the region. We are very excited to celebrate the extraordinary life and prolific work of Dame Laura Knight and are particularly pleased to revisit her connections with our beautiful county.”

An illustrated map of Dame Laura Knight’s links to Malvern, created especially for the exhibition, can be purchased from the Art Gallery & Museum and Malvern Tourist Information Centre.

The exhibition runs from 13 January – 30 June at Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum. Recently revised opening hours mean that the Art Gallery & Museum is now open Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm and Sunday 10am – 3pm. This is a paid-for exhibition and tickets can be booked at www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk The rest of the Art Gallery & Museum is free to visit.

ENDS

Press contact:

For further information contact:

Helen Large, at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum on email Helen.Large@worcester.gov.uk

There will be a photo opportunity on Thursday 11 January, 11am.

 Image Credit:  Sundown, c.1955 (oil on canvas), Knight, Laura (1877-1970) / Wolverhampton Art Gallery, West Midlands, UK / © Wolverhampton Art Gallery / © Estate of Dame Laura Knight. All rights reserved 2023 / Bridgeman Images

 

Exhibition Details:

Dame Laura Knight: I Paint Today

Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum

Saturday 13 January until Sunday 30 June 2024 | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum
Tuesday to Saturday 10am – 4pm, Sunday 10am – 3pm

To book tickets: museumsworcestershire.org.uk

Dame Laura Knight (1877 – 1970) was one of the foremost women painters of the 20th century and the first female artist to be welcomed into the Royal Academy. I Paint Today brings a stirring selection of Knight’s work to Worcester and focuses on key events, characters and achievements which helped to shape her life and career, whilst celebrating her love of Worcestershire and the Malvern Hills. Works from the Worcester City collection will be joined by loans from regional and national collections including the Imperial War Museum, to help tell the story of a woman who grew out of the Victorian era and developed and adapted her craft through a period of tumultuous change.

 

About Museums Worcestershire

Museums Worcestershire is the joint museum service of Worcester City and Worcestershire County Councils. It comprises three fantastic venues– Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, the Commandery in Worcester and The County Museum at Hartlebury Castle.

The collections and exhibitions at our sites are many and varied, covering centuries of the county’s history right up to the present day. Thousands of objects, including the historic buildings themselves, are brought to life through innovative exhibitions and events throughout the year.

www.museumsworcestershire.org.uk