Irina Kulik’s lecture is dedicated to the practice of two Slade School of Art graduates, representing different generations of British art.
English artist Stanley Spencer (1891–1959) never associated himself with any particular art movement, developing a unique painterly manner instead. He is best known for large-scale tableaux representing rural life stylized after Renaissance frescoes. Most of these works depict Cookham—a small village in Berkshire where the author was born and lived most of his life, with their subject matter embracing various Biblical scenes. Spencer’s later practice is notable for a series of portraits of his second wife, artist and Bloomsbury Group member Patricia Preece, whose hugely idiosyncratic and provocative representation of body and nudity might have informed another British artist, Lucien Freud’s signature style.
Paula Rego (b. 1935) is a Portugal born, London based (since 1970s) contemporary artist. Graduate of the Slade School of Art, she works primarily with the medium of painting and printing techniques. Influenced in her early career by abstractionism and surrealism, since the early 1990s Rego has focused on more traditional figurative painting and using pastels instead of oil paints. Her works often revisit folklore plots, including popular Portuguese fairy tales, while also addressing contemporary topics, such as feminism, female sexuality, body and gender issues. Rego’s paintings and prints are in some of the world’s major art collections, including the National Gallery, the Tate, and the British Museum.
