Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John

Speaker: Judith Mackrell, author and dance critic

Judith Mackrell’s double biography of siblings, Augustus and Gwen John, provides a portrait of two prodigiously talented artists, whose experiments with form and colour created some of the most memorable works of the early twentieth century. This lecture will reveal how the two Johns were in many ways polar opposites, but in others were remarkably alike. Augustus – vivid, volatile and promiscuous, a hero among romantics and bohemians – was celebrated as one of the great British talents of his generation. As a woman, Gwen’s place in the art world was much smaller and her private way of working and reserved nature meant it was only long after her death that her tremendous gifts were fully acknowledged. Gwen’s temperament, however, was as turbulent as her brother’s.

Judith Mackrell was dance critic for The Guardian for many years and co-authored The Oxford Dictionary of Dance. She is the author of several non-fiction titles and her biography of the Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova, Bloomsbury Ballerina, was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award.

Members: Free, Online or Victoria Hall
Non-Members: £10, Online or Victoria Hall. To attend in person, please pay on the door
Please book, for online link only, by 1pm on the day of the event

Please join us for a drink in the Members’ Room after the lecture