Charleston

Nina Hamnett

The first retrospective of an artist who was at the heart of the British-French exchange of art and ideas in the early 20th century.

This was the first-ever retrospective of the artist Nina Hamnett. She was at the heart of the British-French exchange of art and ideas in the early 20th century.

It featured works spanning three decades, and explored key aspects of the Welsh artist’s practice from her painting to her technical drawing skills, which have, in recent times, remained little known and unseen.

Hamnett’s frank and intimate portraits represent her greatest body of work, and illustrate her significant contribution to the modern art movement. Her own experience as an artist’s model undoubtedly enabled her to capture the character and personality of her sitters so well. The exhibition included over 50 works with  many portraits of her friends and acquaintances who were also some of the best-known artists and writers of the time, including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Ossip Zadkine and Horace Brodzky.

Hamnett’s paintings give us a glimpse into her life in Paris and London’s avant-garde communities, and into the relationships she forged. Her compelling portraits and skilful compositions such as her Parisian café scenes, reveal Hamnett to be one of the most talented and exciting artists of her time.

★★★★

‘This enthralling exhibition, with many works not normally on public view, sets the record straight.’

– Claudia Pritchard, i Paper

‘Only the completely incurious would not want to know more about Nina Hamnett’

– Rachel Campbell-Johnston, The Times