Galleries - November 2024

ADAM DANT: LEGENDS OF ALBION 22 November 2024 – 16 February 2025 Reviving the lost art of the ‘painter-stainer’, internationally renowned artist Adam Dant explores the myths, legends and fables of ancient Britain in a new exhibition of painted cloths, maps and tableaux. Perhaps best known for his pictorial maps and narrative ink drawings, artist Adam Dant (b.1967) has been dubbed ‘The draftsman laureate of The British Art World.’ Like the work of his 18th century artist forebears, Dant’s panoramas of urban life cram familiar public spaces with historical motifs and classical allusions, all the while providing a humorous visual commentary on contemporary culture. His combination of draftsmanship and imaginative vision have not only earned him numerous accolades and awards, including; The Rome Scholarship in Etching and Engraving (1993), The Jerwood Drawing prize (2002) and his appointment by Parliament as ‘Official Artist of the 2015 UK General Election’, but also the sobriquet of ‘The Hogarth of our times.’ For his new exhibition at Newlands House Gallery in Petworth, West Sussex, Adam Dant revives the long-lost art of The Painted Cloth and with it the origin stories of Ancient Britain, it’s myths, legends and its rulers, thus tracing the lineage of King Charles III directly back to the Ancient Greek god Zeus. Making direct reference to the same ‘pseudo-histories’; Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (c.1095-c.1155) and The Mabinogion (12-13 th century), which would have inspired the works of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Henry Purcell (1659-1695) and Inigo jones (1573-1652) characters such as Bran the Blessed, Brutus of Troy, Gogmagog and Boudica are brought back to life across Dant’s series of giant (typically 2.5 x 1.5m) painted cloths, reconnecting a contemporary audience with the ‘Legends of ‘Albion’ (the archaic name for Great Britain). This novel series of Painted Cloths will be accompanied by a selection of Dant’s works on paper, which act as preparatory cartoons, demonstrating how the artist’s process from initial research and fashioning of designs is applied to an art form which pretty much disappeared in the late 18th century. “It’s not like oil painting,” Dant observes, “ in some ways, it’s more like painting and decorating.”