Dinner Party: With Matthew Smith, Jacob Epstein, Olivia Bax
The exhibition revisits one of the pioneering and legendary exhibitions the then Leeds Curator Phillip Hendy organised for Temple Newsam House during the dark years of the Second World War when the City Art Gallery was closed.
Temperamentally quite different, though admirers of each others work, the often intense, vibrant paintings of Matthew Smith and the raw, modernist bronze sculpture of Jacob Epstein resonated for visitors in the rooms of the Jacobian country house.
Here, 84 years on, we bring them back together along with a third guest – contemporary artist Olivia Bax’s sculpture and assemblages, for floor, wall and table, rooted in material imagination and bright tactility, bring fresh perspectives to these conversations between old friends.
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