London Exhibition Reveals Defiant Creativity of Artist Denton Welch, cut Short by Early Death
A new exhibition at John Swarbrooke Fine Art in London showcases the strikingly original paintings of Denton welch, a British artist and writer who died at age 33 following a debilitating accident. Welch sustained severe injuries in a 1935 bicycle accident south of London, spending the subsequent 13 years of his life in hospitals and nursing homes, during which time he produced a body of work documented in his unfinished final book, A Voice Through a Cloud.
While initially “feeling his way” at Goldsmiths, working from life and casts, Welch developed a distinctive style characterized by heavily worked compositions and the “accretion of small units of sensation,” mirroring the approach in his prose. his pictures, like his books, are “unmistakably his own,” built through a process of addition-starting with a subject like flowers and introducing unexpected elements.
The exhibition features Welch’s still lifes, landscapes, and seven previously unseen self-portraits, described as “austere in colouring and composition” and ”sombre confrontations with the present.” Unlike his books’ focus on recapturing youth, the self-portraits grapple with questions of the future. Welch also designed elaborate book jackets and internal illustrations featuring recurring motifs of trees,books,shells,cats,and cupids,ofen blurring the line between observed reality and depictions found in sculpture,porcelain,or embroidery.
“Strange Discoveries: The Art of Denton Welch” runs at John Swarbrooke Fine Art until October 30.
