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Winston Churchill's 'Playful' Paintings Go on Show in London

The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
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Winston Churchill's 'Playful' Paintings Go on Show in London

The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP
The 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' exhibition opens on Saturday at the Wallace Collection in London. Justin TALLIS / AFP

As Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill was known for his stirring speeches, but a new London exhibition explores another side to his creativity -- as a passionate and prolific artist.

The exhibition opening Saturday at the Wallace Collection will be the most significant display of the statesman's paintings for more than 60 years, including over 50 canvases, many of them rarely seen in public.

Churchill first tried painting during World War I after he resigned from the government over the 1915 failed Dardanelles naval attack.

This was a "very difficult time in his life" when "he suddenly finds himself with all this unwanted leisure time", Lucy Davis, co-curator of the exhibition, told AFP.

"And he discovered painting as a way of releasing the stress, the anguish that the situation had caused him."

The museum presents a chronological survey starting with his first paintings, created with advice from renowned artist John Lavery, then canvases painted in the 1920s at Chartwell, the country house where Churchill lived with his family.

Largely self-taught while associating with well-known painters, Churchill quickly became interested in landscape painting and drew inspiration from holidays in the south of France to create brightly colored canvases dominated by blues and ochre.

- 'Loved the light' -

Churchill "saw painting as a spur to travel" and "just loved the light and warmth and atmosphere, which he captures so beautifully", said Davis.

A whole room is dedicated to canvases inspired by trips to Morocco, including "The Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque", the only painting that Churchill did during World War II. A gift to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the painting recently belonged to Hollywood star Angelina Jolie.

The exhibition ends with the postwar period when Churchill, defeated in a general election, began painting again and continued until his death in 1965, with some of his works going on display at the Royal Academy.

Churchill had previously shown paintings at various galleries, but always under an assumed name.

As a statesman, Churchill went down in history for his wartime leadership, but as an artist, he had little interest in depicting current world events, the curator stressed.

"He was a wartime leader. He was known for these very stirring wartime speeches. But in these paintings, you really see his joie de vivre, his witty side, his playful side."

One painting at the exhibition is an exception: "The Beach At Walmer", painted in 1938 as fears grew of imminent war.

It shows a sandy beach in southern England with bathers paddling. But in the foreground, a black cannon points at the sea, suggesting a looming threat.

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Culture

David Hockney, the British Artist Who Went in Search of Californian Color, Dies at 88

British artist David Hockney poses as he unveils his painting "Bigger Trees Near Water", the largest painting ever shown at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, London, Friday, May 25, 2007. (AP)
British artist David Hockney poses as he unveils his painting "Bigger Trees Near Water", the largest painting ever shown at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, London, Friday, May 25, 2007. (AP)
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David Hockney, the British Artist Who Went in Search of Californian Color, Dies at 88

British artist David Hockney poses as he unveils his painting "Bigger Trees Near Water", the largest painting ever shown at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, London, Friday, May 25, 2007. (AP)
British artist David Hockney poses as he unveils his painting "Bigger Trees Near Water", the largest painting ever shown at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition, London, Friday, May 25, 2007. (AP)

As a child growing up in gloomy northern England, David Hockney noticed the sharply ‌defined shadows in the Hollywood films of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy.

"Strong shadows meant a lot of sun," the painter recalled to BBC television in 2009. "So I thought, well, wherever that is, it's always sunny."

Two decades later, Hockney moved to Los Angeles to immerse himself in that dazzling light.

The artist, whose brightly colored renditions of California would go on to make him one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, has died, Sky News reported on Friday. He was 88.

No cause of death was given.

'HERE I FELT FREE'

Initially, almost as much as his paintings, Hockney was known for his own image — thick-rimmed spectacles, peroxide hair, shiny gold jacket — which became a symbol of Britain's Swinging Sixties.

As an art student in the northern English city of Bradford — where he was born to an accountancy clerk father and a devout Methodist mother — Hockney rebelled against convention.

To continue his studies, in 1959 he moved to London where he had a meteoric rise in the British pop art movement and rubbed shoulders with stars from dancer ‌Rudolf Nureyev to ‌Mick Jagger.

But Hockney yearned for the excitement he saw in the work of American artists. Using money ‌from ⁠the sale of ⁠his art, he visited New York for the first time in 1961 — where he became a friend of Andy Warhol — and moved to California three years later.

"I thought people who produced such work must live in color, so I went in search of it," he is quoted as saying in a biography written by art critic and friend Peter Adam.

"I had spent the first 20 years of my life in the gothic gloom of the North. Here I felt free."

His pictures of swimming pools became icons of a sun-drenched lifestyle that he documented with luminous acrylic paint before dividing his time between Los Angeles, London and Paris in the late 1960s and 1970s.

He remained unpretentious despite his success.

"I am actually still a ⁠student," he told Adam. "I just happen to have quite a lot of credit cards in my pocket."

In ‌1985, when he was invited to the White House to dine with President Ronald Reagan, ‌Prince Charles and Princess Diana, he was held up for half an hour by security officers because he was the only guest to arrive on foot, ‌his biographer wrote.

'YOU DON'T RETIRE DOING THIS'

Hockney's images of love and material wealth led to claims by some art critics that ‌his work was trivial. But he won greater renown than any other British artist of the 20th century.

One of his most famous paintings, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold for $90.3 million in 2018, the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction at the time.

As he grew older and his life turned more domestic, dogs replaced men in Hockney's work, at a time when many ‌of his friends were dying of AIDS.

He said he cried for two days when Stanley, one of his beloved dachshunds, died in 2001, having been immortalized in scores of paintings and sketches.

In the late ⁠1990s, Hockney began returning more frequently to ⁠visit his mother in the northern English county of Yorkshire, where he had grown up, and a terminally ill friend encouraged him to paint the local landscapes.

Feeling increasingly lonely, he moved from California to the seaside town of Bridlington on England's North Sea coast. For a decade he painted clumps of bare trees in winter, fields full of ripe crops and tracks stretching towards the gentle rolling hills of the Yorkshire Wolds region.

It was the most productive period of his entire career as he rushed to capture scenes that, he said, changed more dramatically with the seasons than did those of California.

"You don't retire doing this," he told the BBC in his broad Yorkshire accent when asked about his unflagging energy. "You just do it until you fall over."

The former enfant terrible of British art, a cigarette almost always in his hand, never stopped trying new techniques. He used faxes to share his work and then iPads to produce it. His Yorkshire paintings led to a stained-glass window for Westminster Abbey, in central London.

In 2018, Hockney bought a farmhouse in Normandy, in northern France, and turned his eye to the fields and flowers of his garden there. The 90-meter-long "A Year in Normandie" frieze was inspired by the nearly 1,000-year-old Bayeux Tapestry.

Hockney's work ethic — instilled in him from getting up daily at 6 o'clock to work in hospitals for two years, when he refused to do his military service in the army — barely relented in his later years.

"I tend to think that you should work every day," he said. "And I do."

Culture

Red Sea Museum Extends 'Sunken Treasures' Exhibition Until August 15

The exhibition offers a comprehensive educational and visual experience that traces the evolution of shipwrecks - SPA
The exhibition offers a comprehensive educational and visual experience that traces the evolution of shipwrecks - SPA
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Red Sea Museum Extends 'Sunken Treasures' Exhibition Until August 15

The exhibition offers a comprehensive educational and visual experience that traces the evolution of shipwrecks - SPA
The exhibition offers a comprehensive educational and visual experience that traces the evolution of shipwrecks - SPA

The Red Sea Museum is strengthening its cultural and educational offerings by extending its temporary exhibition, “Sunken Treasures: The Maritime Heritage of the Red Sea,” until August 15 at the Bab Al-Bunt building in Historic Jeddah.

The exhibition offers a comprehensive educational and visual experience that traces the evolution of shipwrecks from the remnants of maritime journeys into valuable historical archives and, ultimately, thriving natural habitats rich in coral reefs and marine life, SPA reported.

It reintroduces the Red Sea as a vital cultural and civilizational corridor that has long connected the Arabian Peninsula with Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean, facilitating trade, cultural exchange, and human interaction across centuries.

The “Sunken Treasures” exhibition reflects the Red Sea Museum’s role as a knowledge platform dedicated to promoting public understanding and supporting scientific research in collaboration with the Heritage Commission and the Jeddah Historic District Program.

Culture

Saudi Film Commission Adds Kuwaiti Classic ‘Bas Ya Bahar’ to National Film Archive to Boost Cultural Cooperation

The Saudi Film Commission logo
The Saudi Film Commission logo
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Saudi Film Commission Adds Kuwaiti Classic ‘Bas Ya Bahar’ to National Film Archive to Boost Cultural Cooperation

The Saudi Film Commission logo
The Saudi Film Commission logo

The Film Commission of the Saudi Ministry of Culture announced the inclusion of the film "Bas Ya Bahar" (The Cruel Sea), one of the most prominent Gulf cinematic works, in the National Film Archive collection.

This step comes as part of the commission's efforts to preserve cinematic heritage, make these productions accessible to researchers, creators, and future generations, and highlight Arab cinematic works of cultural and historical significance, SPA reported.

Directed by Kuwaiti filmmaker Khalid Al-Siddiq in 1972, "Bas Ya Bahar" is the first full-length Kuwaiti feature film and one of the most important works in the history of Gulf cinema.

The film sheds light on the lives and hardships of pearl divers in their search for pearls before the discovery of oil, portraying the challenges faced by Gulf communities during that era.