LEWES.- Charleston announced details of Very Private?, the first exhibition of Duncan Grant’s recently discovered erotic drawings, which are being shown for the first time alongside new contemporary responses by artists Somaya Critchlow, Harold Offeh, Kadie Salmon, Tim Walker, Alison Wilding and Ajamu X. The exhibition opened alongside a new installation by artist Linder, Linder: A Dream Between Sleeping and Waking, which is a multimedia response both to the history of Charleston and the work of Duncan Grant.
Exploring themes of sex, intimacy, gender, and identity, Duncan Grant’s recently uncovered erotic drawings were produced during the 1940s and 50s, a period of persecution and oppression of queer bodies and culture, when sex between men was still illegal in England.
The drawings, long feared lost or destroyed, were donated to Charleston, Grant’s former home, in 2020. They were passed by Grant to his friend Edward le Bas in 1959, in a folder marked ‘These drawings are very private’, in which they were kept and passed from lover to lover, friend to friend in secret for many years. This wildly imaginative, intimate and fun body of work expresses the playful and erotic aspects of Grant’s personality, and was influenced by Greco-Roman traditions and contemporary physique magazines. Grant was a prolific artist, one of the most celebrated and successful in the mid-20th century, and the private drawings were produced in tandem with Grant’s publicly exhibited art, often sharing similar formal themes and techniques.
A selection of over 40 of Grant’s drawings, of varying shapes and sizes, will be brought together alongside responses by contemporary artists. Photographer Tim Walker, who photographed Charleston for Italian Vogue in 2016, will create new works inspired by Grant’s erotic drawings. The artist, curator, archivist and activist Ajamu X is producing a series of photographs that reflect the different aspects of Grant’s work. London-based artist Somaya Critchlow has produced a suite of eight new drawings and watercolours featuring the female nude, and Alison Wilding, one of Britain's foremost sculptors, shows three abstract watercolour works on paper. Scottish artist Kadie Salmon, who uses a combination of digital/analogue imagery and traditional hand colouring techniques to create photographs, presents two new photographic works taken at Charleston. Harold Offeh, who works in a range of media including performance, video, photography, learning and social arts practice, created a new video work drawing on a series of community workshops.
These new and exciting responses by contemporary artists bring together a diverse range of voices, experiences and viewpoints to create a dialogue between the present and the past, one that engages in continuing debates around sexuality and recognises the pioneering spirit of Grant and the Bloomsbury group.
The exhibition also marks the start of a period of research into the collection of drawings and hidden queer histories. The research project, which focuses on the conservation and digitisation of this important, and previously unknown, aspect of Grant’s oeuvre, is a collaborative PhD between Charleston and the University of Sussex. Samson Dittrich will research this previously unknown yet vital aspect of Grant's oeuvre thanks to funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and CHASE.
Linder’s exciting new installation, Linder: A Dream Between Sleeping and Waking, brings together a series of objects alongside new and existing works to create a multi-sensory collage in dialogue with Duncan Grant and Charleston.
“A dream between sleeping and waking” is how Duncan Grant described the works of Surrealist artist Rene Magritte; and it is also how Linder interprets the landscape, history and mythology of Charleston. The artist’s surreal, dream-like installation is an homage to the genre of the mediaeval dream vision - a belief that dreams are a place where truth is revealed and the divine encountered. Within the immersive experience of the installation, the works interact with one another and conversations form between them, creating imaginary dialogues.
Linder, who is best known for her radical feminist photomontage and collage works, is displaying her never-before-seen series of works for the Houston based producer and musician, Rabit, featuring the contemporary queer music collective House of Kenzo, and a fascinating new photomontage series exploring Liverpool football fans’ obsession with sports trophies and ‘collecting silverware’.
Also in the mix are the artist Mark Lancaster’s 1980s portraits of Vanessa Bell and a selection of bespoke items from fashion designer Christopher Shannon’s ‘Rando Fleece’ sportswear - an homage to the tracksuits Duncan Grant was pictured wearing in his later years.
Nathaniel Hepburn, Director and Chief Executive, The Charleston Trust, said: "Across our festivals, events and exhibitions we relish opportunities for great creative minds to interrogate and respond to Charleston's history and represent it to contemporary audiences. While we engage in the process of researching and understanding the collection of Duncan Grant's erotic drawings in its entirety, we are delighted to be able to present a selection of the collection alongside new work by seven exciting contemporary artists which offer new ways of looking at and thinking about these important drawings and their place in history.”
Darren Clarke, Head of Collections and Research, said: “It’s wonderful to see Duncan Grant’s creativity inspiring and influencing such an exciting and innovative group of contemporary artists. Made over seventy years ago, Grant’s drawings of intense physical passion still resonate with a freshness and joyful beauty that connects them to audiences and the queer experience across the generations.”
Opening concurrently with this exhibition, the artist duo Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl will present a fantastical mise-en-scène installation at Belmacz London, featuring a selection of Grant’s erotic drawings from Charleston’s collection. Following their representation of Austria at the 59th Venice Biennale and ahead of their solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2023, this exhibition will see the duo presenting their dynamic dual practice for the first time in the UK.
