Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines: a radical art school will take over Charleston's galleries at Firle from autumn, bringing the pioneering works of both artists to Sussex.
More than just partners in art, Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines were life partners for over 60 years and together co-founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing in 1937.
Like the community that the Bloomsbury group created at Charleston, at their rural Suffolk home, Benton End, Morris and Lett-Haines' fostered a creative community that lived and worked together in the countryside.
Here they cultivated a sense of freedom, creativity and experimentation. This radical approach shaped the careers of many influential artists, including Prunella Clough, Lucian Freud, and Maggi Hambling, who all studied with Morris and 'Lett' (as Lett-Haines was known).
In the first exhibition in over 50 years to show this many of the artists' works side by side, it will trace the shape of the artists' lives and work.
From meeting on Armistice night in 1918, to their travels in Paris in the 1920s, their experiments with abstraction, cubism and surrealism, and their biggest project together, Benton End.
The exhibition features over 80 pieces from private collections and public institutions reflecting the practice of both artists across their lives together.
Nathaniel Hepburn, Director of Charleston, says:
"This exhibition underscores the profound impact Morris and Lett-Haines had on modern art. Charleston in Firle couldn't be a more apt location - a haven for queer love and artistic expression and a place that will have provided an unconventional education for many on how to love, live and express freely.
"The similarities between the two artistic communities couldn't be more apparent."
This exhibition is created in partnership with Gainsborough's House. 'Revealing Nature: The Art of Cedric Morris & Lett-Haines', curated by Dr Patricia Hardy, is at Gainsborough's House until November 3rd 2024.
Alongside this, and to coincide with the opening of a major Vanessa Bell exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery, there will be a showcase of 10 significant portraits of Vanessa Bell by her close friend and fellow artist Duncan Grant inside the house at Charleston in Firle.
Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines: a radical art school comes to Sussex - 16th November 2024 to 23rd February 2025. For more info CLICK HERE.