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Isabel Rawsthorne Rediscovered: The Poetry in Things
Isabel Rawsthorne Rediscovered: The Poetry in Things
"We think of Isabel as ... this incredibly glamourous figure ... but she challenged that fundamental divide between the model and artist ... in a way, when she was the subject of Giacometti, of Bacon, she was also an artist." - Carol Jacobi
Defying expectations, Isabel Rawsthorne (1912 - 1992) made a place for herself amongst contemporaries in early 20th century visual art, ending up at the centre of the Paris avant-garde. Her ingenuity as an artists' model won her the freedom to paint, a vocation she would pursue for 75 years. A lifelong natural historian, Rawsthorne's ephemeral images are informed by her observations of the language of gesture and movement, from her poetic depictions of animals to her embattled self-portraits. Guided by curator Carol Jacobi, discover artist Isabel Rawsthorne, "a missing link of 20th century art".
Time Period:
20th century
Themes:
Dr Carol Jacobi is Curator of British Art 1850-1915 at Tate Britain and also publishes and broadcasts on nineteenth and twentieth-century art. She has taught at Birkbeck College, the Courtauld Institute and elsewhere. Carol's research takes a social and cultural perspective and aims to challenge and widen canon, focussing on intersections of the arts, for example, and women artists. She has curated exhibitions on Pre-Raphaelite art, Victorian photography and the major exhibition Van Gogh and Britain at Tate. She has written especially about the Pre-Raphaelites, Alberto Giacometti, Isabel Rawsthorne, Francis Bacon and his circle.
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