Glyn Philpot: Flesh and Spirit

Organised by : Pallant House Gallery

Discover the work of Glyn Philpot, the sought-after society portraitist who shook off convention to embrace modernism.

The first major exhibition of British artist Glyn Philpot R.A. (1884-1937) in almost 40 years. Bringing together over 80 paintings, drawings and sculptures, many unseen in public for decades, the exhibition charts the artist's development from Edwardian society portraits to his shift to a radically modernist style in the 1930s.

The exhibition will include his portraits of actors, dancers, poets, society hostesses, male lovers and friends, examining his important contribution to the sensitive representation of black sitters from the 1910s to 1930s, and his exploration of both queer and religious subjects.

Philpot's sitters included a Who's Who of British society, from glamorous duchesses a such as Loelia, Duchess of Westminster, to actors, poets and writers including Siegfried Sassoon. Alongside these portraits, Philpot gained a reputation for his paintings, sculptures and drawings of unknown black sitters. Central to the exhibition will be an exploration of how these relate to wider dialogues about identity and representation in modern art.