Diana Armfield

Diana Armfield RA Hon RWS NEAC a un attachement personnel pour ses sujets et une affinité subtile et distincte avec les rythmes de formes et de tons. Ces qualités font d’elle une personne influente et populaire dans l’art moderne britannique. Ses représentations de fleurs lui ont valu de grands éloges mais ce livre (créé pour marquer son 100ème anniversaire), représente pleinement sasensibilité pour les paysages et les lieux. Sa vie fascinante d’artiste est actualisée dans ce livre qui regroupe un nombre exaltant de ses oeuvres les plus récentes.‘I think I was born making things’, Diana comments to Andrew Lambirth, whoseabsorbing interview with her forms the narrative thread of Diana Armfi eld: A Lyrical Eye. Diana’s was a creative childhood steeped in experiments with drawing, pottery andembroidery, played out against the backdrop of a picture-fi lled house, a lovely gardenand an artistic family. She studied at Bournemouth, Slade and Central art schools,starting out as a talented textile designer – a legacy that lent her a unique approachto the geometry, cadences and colour qualities of a painting. After organising cultural activities for workers and troops in World War II, Diana became one half of a successful partnership designing textiles and wallpaper, whose work featured in the Festival of Britain in 1951. The 1960s brought a turn to painting and from 1966 Diana has been a regular exhibitor at the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. She hascontinued to paint and draw throughout her life and, as this book clearly demonstrates,always thinks afresh about each subject she tackles in order to respond to it with a close,warm sincerity.Diana Armfield: A Lyrical Eye charts Diana’s personal and artistic journey with over 200 beautiful reproductions of her work, tracing favourite subjects and events – from a Welsh landscape to an informal flower display or the much-loved location of a painting trip in Italy or France. Andrew Lambirth’s interview also explores the unique bond with her husband, painter Bernard Dunstan, who died in 2017, looking at how two leading artists interwove their personal and creative lives over a marriage of almost 70 years. As well as this interview, Andrew has contributed an essay on Diana’s work to the book.Diana’s standing and popularity have led to regular exhibitions, especially at prominent London gallery Browse & Darby. Her work is held in private and public collections worldwide, from London’s V&A to the Yale Center for British Art.