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Alison Dunhill

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Alison Dunhill(born 1950) is an English artist and art historian, and also a published poet.

Biography[edit]

Born in London, Dunhill trained in Fine Art at theUniversity of ReadingunderSir Terry FrostandRita Donagh.In the early 1970s she had a studio inFlorencewhere she associated with some of the key figures in theSituationist International,[1]including philosopher and filmmakerGuy Debord,the writerGianfranco Sanguinettiand, later, the novelist and criticMichèle Bernstein.She presented some of her recollections of that time to an audience in Rio de Janeiro in 2015.[2]

Artistic career[edit]

Dunhill was primarily alandscape painterin her earlier career, and later explored more abstract and semi-sculptural forms, includingmixed mediaartworks inspired by thesurrealistideas of chance and thefound object.[3][4]

For much of her artistic career Dunhill maintained studios in London but she now lives and works inKing's Lynn,Norfolk.She has exhibited frequently; she is a Member ofthe National Society of Painters, Sculptors & Printmakers;and she was a founder member of theKingsgate Workshops Trust.[5]

One of herdrawingsselected from theWomen Artists Slide Library(WASL) was reproduced inThe Women Artists Diary 1989.[6]Three of her paintings, and a discussion of the techniques she used to create them from her own original photographs, were reproduced inDiana Constance's book on painting from photographs published in 1995.[7]

In 2015 she was awarded a residency at Largo das Artes (Despina), a contemporary art institute inRio de Janeiro,Brazil.[8][9]

In July 2019 she presented new works andsite-specific installationswithCUSP Artistsat the Undercroft Gallery inNorwich.[10]

Returning to landscape painting in her 2021 'Lockdown Landscape' exhibition, Dunhill presented some 20 new canvases, of varying sizes from 30 x 30 cm up to 100 x 140 cm, painted with acrylics and mostly without brushes, as her response to the changed and changing world of theCOVID-19 lockdown.[11][12]Her account of the effect of the lockdown on her art practice is published inNow This: Reflections on Our Arts and Cultures.[13]

Selected exhibitions[edit]

  • 1984 - Kingsgate Gallery, London
  • 1990 - Piers Feetham Gallery, London
  • 1992 -Hampstead TheatreGallery, London
  • 1994 - Piers Feetham Gallery, London
  • 1995 -Hampstead TheatreGallery, London
  • 1998 -Incomes Data Services,London
  • 2003 - 'Segments', Gallery 47, London
  • 2007 - Neptune Gallery, Hunstanton
  • 2012 - 'Tall & Thin', Greyfriars Art Space, King's Lynn
  • 2013 - '47 New Works', Flow Films, London
  • 2015 - Largo das Artes, Rio de Janeiro
  • 2018 - 'Plaster, Parquet & Pillars', Fermoy Gallery, King's Lynn
  • 2019 - 'Upscape', A/side-B/side Gallery, London
  • 2021 - 'Lockdown Landscape', Fermoy Gallery, King's Lynn
  • 2023 - 'Landscapes', Brick Lane Gallery, London

(Selected from exhibition list on artist's website)[14]

Art historian[edit]

As an art historian, Dunhill completed an MPhil thesis at theUniversity of Essexon the modernist American photographerFrancesca Woodman.[15][16][17]This thesis provides a detailed analysis of six photographic books that Woodman compiled in her lifetime, and examines them in the context ofsurrealismwhich, Dunhill argues, was a significant influence on Woodman.[18]Her study of Woodman's bookSome Disordered Interior Geometries[19]was published inre•busin 2008.[20]Dunhill has presented papers on Woodman at academic conferences and gallery talks at theDouglas Hyde GalleryatTrinity College Dublinand theSainsbury Centre for Visual Arts.[5]

She contributed a memoir to a 2010 Paris exhibition catalogue of the artist and psychogeographer, and sometime Situationist,Ralph Rumney,whom she had befriended in the latter years of his life;[1]and her published reviews include an assessment of Claudia Herstatt'sWomen GalleristsforTate Etc.[21][22]She also reviewedAnna Anderson'sChildhood Ritualsexhibition[23]at theFreud Museumin Hampstead in 2011 forCassone: The International Online Magazine of Art and Art Books.[24]

Poetry[edit]

Dunhill's early poetry collection,Gig Soup Scoop,published in 1972 by a small alternative press,[25]is now a rarity.[26]She was anArvon Foundationmentee in 1991, leading to publication inJoe Soap's Canoe.[27][28]

More recently, two of her prose poems were long-listed for the Fish PublishingFlash FictionPrize 2020.[29]Also in that year two of her poems were published in the international online surrealist poetrySurVisionMagazine.[30]Two further poems of hers were included in theFenland Poetry Journal;[31]the cover art of this issue reproduces one of Dunhill's artworks.[32]

Her poetry pamphletAs Pure as Coal Dust,a winner of the James Tate International Poetry Prize,[33]was published by SurVision Books in June 2021.[34][35]Her poems have appeared in two recent international anthologies.[36][37]

References[edit]

  1. ^abRalph Rumney – La Vie d'artiste.Paris: Editions Allia. 2010. pp. 22–23.ISBN978-2-84485-391-2.
  2. ^"The International Situationists: A Brief Moment in Time in Florence".
  3. ^"The Magical World of Alison Dunhill".4 May 2018.
  4. ^"Surrealist-inspired works to fill King's Lynn gallery".14 April 2018.
  5. ^ab"Alison Dunhill, Biography".
  6. ^The Women Artists Diary 1989.London: The Women's Press. 1988.ISBN978-0-7043-4134-0.
  7. ^Constance, Diana (1995).Painting from Photographs.London: HarperCollins. pp. 63–65, 81.ISBN0-00-412712-9.
  8. ^"Despina: Artists in Residence".
  9. ^"EV-Largo das Artes".
  10. ^"CUSP Artists".
  11. ^"Lockdown Landscape".
  12. ^"A new exhibition and a new view of King's Lynn".KL Magazine(124): 132–134. September–October 2021.ISSN2044-7965.
  13. ^Borlenghi, Patricia, ed. (April 2021).Now This: Reflections on Our Arts and Cultures.Manningtree, Essex: Patrician Press. pp. 11–15.ISBN9781838-059804.
  14. ^"Alison Dunhill, Exhibition History".
  15. ^Dunhill, Alison G. (2012).Almost a square; the photographic books of Francesca Woodman and their relationship to surrealism(M.Phil. thesis). Dept. of Art History and Theory, University of Essex.
  16. ^"Francesca Woodman's Books".
  17. ^"Download thesis"(PDF).
  18. ^"Francesca Woodman's Books: Introduction"(PDF).
  19. ^Woodman, Francesca (1981).Some disordered interior geometries.Philadelphia: Synapse Press.OCLC11308833.
  20. ^Dunhill, Alison.Dialogues with Diagrams.re•bus,2008 Autumn/Winter, issue 2.
  21. ^Herstatt, Claudia (2008).Women Gallerists in the 20th and 21st Centuries.Berlin: Hatje Cantz.ISBN978-3-7757-1975-9.
  22. ^"Books Etc".
  23. ^"Alice Anderson's Childhood Rituals".
  24. ^Dunhill, Alison (May 2011)."Housebound at Freud's house".Cassone: The International Online Magazine of Art and Art Books.
  25. ^Dunhill, Alison (1972).Gig Soup Scoop.London: Transgravity Advertiser.
  26. ^"Gig Soup Scoopby Alison Dunhill. Transgravity Advertiser, London. Soft cover, Limited Edition - Colophon Books ".
  27. ^Stannard, Martin, ed.Joe Soap's Canoe.Felixstowe, 1992.ISSN0951-4864
  28. ^"Joe Soap's Canoe issue 15, 1992"(PDF).
  29. ^"Flash Fiction Prize 2020 Long-list".10 April 2020.
  30. ^"SurVision Magazine / Alison Dunhill, issue 7, 2020".
  31. ^Dunhill, Alison.Fenland Poetry Journal.Issue 3, Autumn 2020. pp. 34, 48.ISSN2632-8259
  32. ^Sennitt Clough, Elisabeth, ed.Fenland Poetry Journal.Issue 3, Autumn 2020. p. 2.ISSN2632-8259
  33. ^"James Tate Prize".
  34. ^Dunhill, Alison (June 2021).As Pure As Coal Dust.Dublin, Ireland & Reggio di Calabria, Italy: SurVision Books.ISBN978-1-912963-23-2.
  35. ^"Sphinx Poetry Pamphlet Reviews".
  36. ^Zdanys, Jonas, ed. (2022).Contemporary Surrealist and Magical Realist Poetry: An International Anthology.Beaumont, Texas: Lamar University Literary Press. pp. 96–97.ISBN978-1-942956-68-6.
  37. ^Kitt, Tony, ed. (2023).Contemporary Tangential Surrealist Poetry: An Anthology.Dublin: SurVision Books. pp. 51–53.ISBN978-1-912963-44-7.

External links[edit]

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