PRESS RELEASE
Stanley Spencer Gallery – Winter 2014/2015 Exhibition
Left: Stanley Spencer: Self-Portrait, 1914 © Tate 2014 Right: Stanley Spencer: Self-Portrait, 1923, Stanley Spencer Gallery Collection
© The Estate of Stanley Spencer. All Rights Reserved, 2014/Bridgeman Images
The Stanley Spencer Gallery’s Winter Exhibition, commencing on 6th November 2014 and running until
29 March 2015, continues the theme of Spencer’s recovery from his traumatic First World War
experiences to produce some of his finest and most hauntingly memorable works, often set in his
beloved Cookham.
A keynote to the Exhibition is established by the juxtaposition of two self-portraits (1914 and 1923),
where the shifts in style and in self-perception are all too evident. The first of these self-portraits, on
loan to the Stanley Spencer Gallery from the Tate, has been selected by experts at Time-Out London as
one of their top 100 London-based paintings. It is a stunning, larger than life, image in the style of an
old master, painted when Spencer was only 23 years old. The portrait depicts a young man, already an
artist of considerable success, gazing out on the world with strong purpose and confidence, ready to take
on its further challenges. But war intervened, and the later (1923) self-portrait, painted in the broad
brushstrokes and simplified areas of colour characteristic of Post-Impressionism, reflects the doubt and
hesitation with which Spencer was assailed whilst struggling to recover his artistic equilibrium in the postwar period.
The Winter Exhibition includes further wonderful, monumental works on continuing loan from the Tate,
such as the disturbing painting, The Bridge, 1920, with its fan-like arrangements of identically-clothed
young men gazing from Cookham Bridge, and the mystical Christ Carrying the Cross, set in front of
Spencer’s home in Cookham High Street.
Also featured are two 1923 studies for the Sandham Memorial Chapel at Burghclere, honouring the
‘forgotten dead’ of the First World War, at that time yet to be painted by Spencer. These two studies
formed an ‘architectural scheme’ and working drawings for the epic series of large scale murals, which
would become an iconic achievement of twentieth century art. The drawings have returned from their
recent tour with the National Trust and form an important link between the Stanley Spencer Gallery and
the newly refurbished Chapel, less than an hour’s drive from Cookham.
Sir Stanley Spencer was one of the greatest and most original British painters of the 20th century. His
work combines the realism of everyday life with visionary insights, and offers joyous and vivid fusions of
the ordinary with the extraordinary and the earthly with the spiritual. The Winter Exhibition at the
Stanley Spencer Gallery is an exciting opportunity to explore, or further explore, Spencer’s dazzling skill,
his personal idiosyncrasies, the intriguing contradictions of his life and the breadth of his unique talent.
The Stanley Spencer Gallery, in Cookham High Street, was established in 1962 and refurbished in 2006-7
as a beautiful modern art gallery with video presentations to accompany each current exhibition. The
Gallery’s archives include personal letters, photographs, press cuttings and a comprehensive library of
books on the artist, all readily accessible for visitors to enjoy.
Accolades received by the Gallery in 2014 include:
- Named by ArtFund this year as one of the five most 'unmissable' small Art Galleries in the UK.
- Awarded a Michelin star in the Great Britain Michelin Green Guide.
- Named in Trip Advisor’s FlipKey.com list of '2014 Top Museums Worth Travelling For'.
Images available for use in reviewing the exhibition include:
Self-Portrait, 1914 © Tate,
London 2014
The Bridge, 1920 © Tate
London 2014
Self-Portrait, 1923, Barbara
Karmel Bequest, 1995,
(Stanley Spencer Gallery
Collection)
Christ Carrying the Cross,
1920 © Tate London
2014
Wounded being Carried by Mules in
Macedonia, 1918 (Stanley Spencer Gallery
Collection)
Photograph: Home Leave. Brothers
Stanley, Percy and Sydney Spencer in
Uniform c1915 (Stanley Spencer Gallery
Photograph Archive)
Stanley Spencer Gallery Winter Exhibition: Paradise Regained from 6 November 2014 until 29 March 2015.
Opening hours, Winter Exhibition: Thursday to Sunday 11.00 am to 4.30pm
(but please check website www.stanleyspencer.org.uk)
Stanley Spencer Gallery, High Street, Cookham SL6 9SJ
Publicity: Shez Courtenay-Smith email shez@stanleyspencer.org.uk Tel 01628 520320