This website is not intended as a comprehensive survey
of the scope and development of his work, but rather
by emphasising paintings from his two major cycles,
Black Earth (1980-83) and Europe
(1973-86), it seeks to focus on two extremes
of the artist’s creativity – nature and
history.
One of Anthony Dorrell’s
greatest gifts was a capacity to treat his audience
with a degree of affection and respect. He had clear
views of both history and nature, and of the inseparability
of one from the other, and he was not a pessimist. Far
from entertaining any sentimental illusions about the
timelessness of art and the ephemeral nature of existence,
he remained firmly in the here and now. He was a constant
advocate of freedom and defender of social and individual
justice and an avid enemy of the hypocrisies of and
pretensions of money and class. He lived the twentieth
century and used his gifts to offer both nature and
history the devotion of a lifetime, in witness and in
celebration.
For an artist who left such a huge body
of work it was incredible how rarely his works were
shown to the public. His last one-man exhibition was
in 1968, as he instead exhibited in group shows such
as in London’s Whitechapel Gallery show ‘Art
for Society’ in the seventies. His first and only
posthumous exhibition took place in 1989 at St Michael’s
Mount, Longstanton.
Click
here for information
about where you can now see Anthony Dorrell's
work. |
