The story behind Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece’s paintings ought to be better known than it is – something a new exhibition, ‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story’ atAfter meeting at London’s Slade School of Art in 1918 the two women – both of them artists, one magnetic and flamboyant, the other shy but a prolific artist – would go on to forge a radical queer and creative partnership that would span a rich body of work over several decades: still lifes, drawings, and...
After Slade, the women moved to Paris to study at the Académie Colarossi, painting alongside luminaries such as Henry Moore and Cedric Morris. Here, Hepworth would spend the next few years refining her style, incorporating sharp lines, sinuous forms, bold brushstrokes and vibrant colours into her works, just like her Post-Impressionist contemporaries.
Through Spencer’s art, letters and photographs, the show makes no secret of the artist, his wife and her lover’s love triangle . His unrelenting obsession with Preece is evident in the exhibition’s display of Spencer’s portraits of her; stands out as perhaps the most telling, as the artist superimposed a wedding ring on her finger, two years before they actually married.
‘Dorothy Hepworth and Patricia Preece: An Untold Story’ is on view from 27 March – 8 September 2024 at Charleston in Lewes, UKKatie Tobin is a culture writer and a PhD candidate in English at the University in Durham. She is also a former lecturer in English and Philosophy.