Dreams are here

 This exhibition is well worth a visit. I heard about it purely by chance so thank you to whoever mentioned it.  Julian Bell, Tom Hammick and Andrzej Jackowski come together to create Dreams are Here at Brighton  Museum and Art Gallery

Julian Bell’s paintings of ordinary people in everyday situations were done with such a vibrant palette that his painting of Wing Kip on the A23 might be in danger of becoming a tourist attraction. The fire bowl in the desert made another dramatic painting.  Just as appealing,  however,  were the subtle colours of Swanborough in a fold in the Downs and the cave on the beach called A la Plage Etretat.

Some of Julian Bell’s  sketchbooks are on show and there is an  enormous oil painting called ‘motherboard’ which was a collage of his work in progress for Wing Kip.  This gave a  fascinating insight into how the picture developed, with sketches, some on tissue paper, overlaid one on the other.

Tom Hammick’s work is concerned with landscapes but in intense and often unnatural colours. The film/talk from his studio told us how he uses multi -media in his paintings. He  believes that film distils time,  so he takes photographs from tv programmes and on car journeys. He is keen on wood cuts and often listens to poetry and music before he starts his painting day.

Andrsej Jackowski presented an installation which was an array of stark paintings on japanese nap paper. This room was created specially for this exhibition and was based on an empty space. It started with a man in what looked like a cell on a boat and then moved to a series of painting on the theme of a barren room. In each one the mood changed by the introduction of  props and/or people over a period of time

Andrzel Jackowski is Polish and had been interned with his parents during the war following his parents’ escape from Italy.  On the film loop he told a very touching story of how one of his early influences had been his father’s stamp collection. These stamps were collected by his father during an earlier imprisonment and he carried them over the Alps and finally brought them to England.

Later, a poet in residence at Falmouth had interested Andrzej in psychoanalysis encouraging  art students to explore the way that creativity is influenced by the unconscious mind.

Much of the painting in this room appeared to be bleak but the dialogue from the artist gave it a new dimension.

Great exhibition – food for the soul today!

Note   Unfortunately there are just two sets of headphones in each corner of each room  so best to avoid busy times. Each recording lasts about 12 minutes  and there are no seats nearby, so the elderly might be advised to take along a folding stool.