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Dame Laura Knight: I Paint Today

Dame Laura Knight exhibition ‘I Paint Today’ opens at Worcester Art Gallery on Saturday January 13th 2024.

Saturday 13 January to Sunday 30 June 2024 | Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum

Enjoy an exciting series of talks and events alongside the exhibition.

Saturday 13 January 2024, 10.30am – 1pm.

Book signing – Laura Knight in the Malverns | 13 January

Author and Dame Laura Knight expert Heather Whatley will be signing copies of her book Laura Knight in the Malverns at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum on the exhibition’s opening day.

Bite Size Lectures:

Dame Laura Knight – I Paint Today | Tuesday 12 March, 2 – 2.30pm.

Dame Laura Knight in the Malvern Hills | Tuesday 11 June, 2 – 2.30pm.

Laura Knight in Cornwall – with Alison Bevan:

Saturday 16 March 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Enjoy an illustrated talk by Alison Bevan BEM BA FMA, Director RWA (Royal West of England Academy), about Laura Knight’s relationship with the Newlyn School and Lamorna art colonies, and the lifelong friendships she formed in her Cornish years.

Looking Behind the Scenes: Laura Knight and her Theatre ‘Views’ – with Claire Cochrane | 20 April

Saturday 20 April 2024, 11am – 12noon.

A talk by Claire Cochrane, Professor Emeritus of Theatre Studies at the University of Worcester, focusing on Laura Knight’s fascination with the theatre as an environment for creativity in action, giving us an invaluable glimpse of the theatre world backstage. Her close friendship with the Birmingham Rep founder and theatre impresario, Barry Jackson, gave her privileged access to the theatres he managed, including the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in post-war Stratford

Meanderings Around Worcester – with Philip Serrell | 4 May

Saturday 4 May 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Philip Serrell is an auctioneer, antiques expert, and television personality who appears regularly on BBC TV antiques programmes such as Bargain Hunt and Flog It!

Join Philip for a fun and fascinating insight into his life as an auctioneer in Worcestershire and his love of antiques and porcelain, with a special look at his connection with Dame Laura Knight

The Top of the Tree: Laura Knight and her contemporaries – with Pamela Gerrish Nunn | 1 June

Saturday 1 June 2024, 11am – 12noon.

A talk by Pamela Gerrish Nunn, author & professor of Art History & Theory at Canterbury University, New Zealand. In the 1938 book Women of To-day, Laura Knight was declared to be ‘at the top of the tree’, one of the leading artists of the day and an inspiration to other women.

Dame Laura Knight: Objects that Tell | 8 June

Saturday 8 June 2024, 11am – 12noon.

Dame Laura Knight: Objects that Tell, is a unique opportunity to hear about and handle selected items from the Dame Laura Knight Archive, giving you the opportunity to gain a rare insight into the life of one of the most successful and popular women artists in Britain. 

Book your tickets

This exhibition explores Knight as an artist who grew out of the Victorian era, developing and adapting her craft through a period of tumultuous change. In 1936, she was the first female artist to be welcomed with a full membership to the Royal Academy of Arts. Her career covered both world wars, and as a war artist she famously captured the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.

Worcestershire played an important part in Knight’s life and work, the dramatic landscape of the Malvern Hills a subject of her much-loved paintings. Knight and her husband, Harold, spent long periods of time in Malvern from 1933 onwards.

Dame Laura Knight – I Paint Today brings a stirring selection of Knight’s works to Worcestershire. Art from the Worcester City collection – including three paintings by Knight recently acquired – will be complemented by exciting loans from regional and national galleries.

Exhibition admission

Tickets are required to visit this exhibition and advance booking is available online. There are a variety of ticket options to choose from. The rest of the Art Gallery and Museum is free to visit as usual.

The exhibition is open from 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Saturday, and 10am to 3pm on Sunday. Last entry is one hour before closing

Laura Knight is in the spotlight again:

Below is a link to a zoom talk by Dr Alice Strickland on the life of Laura Knight with the title ‘Circus Troupes and Parachutes’.

For any recently joined members of the society, this will be a good resume of Laura’s extraordinary life and what she achieved as a female artist at the beginning of the 20thC. 

Alice Strickland is a curator for the National Trust in London and the South-East and her doctorate considered British women artists of the Second World War.

The zoom talk was on August 21st at 8-9.30pm However, it can still be accessed via the link below:

Here are the details: (Copy and Paste into your chosen browser)

www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/event/circus-troupes-and-parachutes-the-many-lives-of-laura-knight-with-alice-strickland/

This event is organised by The Last Tuesday Society.

Future Event For Your Diary:

Sir Alfred Munnings: His Life, Art and Connections with Dame Laura Knight

This event has now taken place and a review can be accessed here.Talk by Fay Blanchard

This event has now taken place and was by all counts a great success.

A full review of Fay’s presentation can be read here.

LAURA KNIGHT. AN ARTIST’S LIFE ON THE EDGE – SACHA LLEWELLYN AND LINDA FALCONE IN CONVERSATION

 This video conversation was presented live on February 2nd. However, it can still be accessed via this link:

https://www.royaldrawingschool.org/lectures-events/laura-knight-an-artists-life-on-the-edge/

Laura Knight: A Panoramic View

Milton Keynes Gallery

This successful exhibition has now closed. However, please click Here to read a review.

Dame Laura Knight: An Artists Appreciation

In November 2020 the DLK society commissioned an on-line lecture by artist and senior lecturer Brian Gorst titled ‘An Artists Appreciation’. Brian was able to offer a unique insight and perception onto DKL’s work and methods.

Initially only available to members we have now openly released this onto YouTube which can be accessed: Here

Publication of our societies book titled: Laura Knight in The Malverns

OUR PUBLICATION ABOUT LAURA KNIGHT IN THE MALVERNS.

Heather Whatley’s book ‘Laura Knight in the Malverns’ is now well established on the bookshelves. Heather was the founder and is now the Vice Chair of the Friends of Dame Laura Knight Society. 

Most biographies of Laura mention her stay in Malvern but none give detail of the three decades from 1931 until 1961 that she lived here. Drawing on recorded memories of local people the author hopes to bring to life the woman as well as the artist, a dynamic personality who engaged socially with all the locals she met, many of whom she painted.

Using Society archives, photos, maps and illustrations of Laura’s local paintings the writer traces Laura and Harold’s stay in Malvern from early Festival days, their permanent stay during World War 2, when Laura was a prolific War Artist, to their frequent returns to the town post war to see old friends and to continue painting.

Dame Laura Knight claimed she did her best landscapes in Malvern and her paintings of this period demonstrate her love of our countryside in all seasons and leave us with a colourful record of the lives of ordinary working people and our cultural history.

The book is published by Aspect Printers, costs £7.50 and is available in Malvern Tourist Information Centre, Co-operative Bookshop Malvern, Malvern Museum and on-line at Amazon.co.uk. 

To read a review of the book please click here.