Art Show: John Bratby – Everything but the Kitchen Sink including the Kitchen sink ** 30 Jan – 17 Apr 2016 ** Jerwood Gallery
John Bratby was a prolific painter, writer and something of an enfant terrible on the British art scene during the Fifties and Sixties. Born in 1928, he died in his adopted home town of Hastings, just a day after his 64th birthday, while walking home from the local chippy.
Rather than create a traditional retrospective of his painting – it is believed Bratby painted over 1,500 works – we launched a rare opportunity for the UK public to shape the style and content of a major gallery exhibition.
Over the past two months, the gallery has been overwhelmed with submissions of privately owned Bratby’s, along with personal recollections, letters and photos.
Some wonderful works were discovered at our Bring us your Bratby day on 19 October 2015 and we would like to say thank you to those who have helped us literally rediscover his output and celebrate the talent of the man who put everything but the kitchen sink, including the kitchen sink, into his art.
There was intensity to Bratby’s output, as his widow Patti recalls: “From one seed out of a packet of the Van Gogh variety, John did 55 pictures in 18 days.” Patti herself will be involved in the exhibition, loaning Bratby’s work and keepsakes from his studio – “I’m so excited, I can’t stop thinking about it!”
Read the press release for the exhibition here.
Source: Jerwood Gallery – What’s On
Sussex ArtBeat 