A Century of the Artist's Studio at Whitechapel Gallery, 2022

Ina

Apr 14, 2022

3 min read

Updated: Oct 6

A Century of the Artist's Studio: 1920–2020 filled the galleries of the Whitechapel Gallery from 24 February to 5 June 2022. It looked at the studio as a place, from an attic or a kitchen table to a factory floor. This page is a record of the show.

A studio corner with a large pink, blue and red abstract painting at the back and small objects on a table in front

A Century of the Artist's Studio: What Was in the Show?

The exhibition had more than 100 works by over 80 artists and collectives, from Africa, Australasia, South Asia, China, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. It included sculpture, painting, installation, film and photography.

Iwona Blazwick, the gallery's director at the time, led it with a curatorial committee of Dawn Ades, Inês Costa, Richard Dyer, Hammad Nasar and Candy Stobbs. A fully illustrated catalogue with new essays came with it.

A large black-and-white photograph of a sculptor working beside a timber shed, with a carved sculpture in front of it

How Was the Show Organised?

Two themes ran through it. The Public Studio covered the studio as factory, exhibition space, arena and classroom. The Private Studio covered it as home, refuge, laboratory and place of resistance.

Louise Bourgeois's Cell IX, made in 1999, was the frontispiece. The gallery described it as the studio seen as both prison and way out. Bourgeois has her own page on this site: The Woven Child at the Hayward Gallery.

A cage of black mesh and glass panels with a pale fabric shape inside it, lit from above

Which Studios Were Recreated?

Several rooms reached for the feel of real studios. Francis Bacon's studio at 7 Reece Mews appeared through photographs and a copy book, not a full rebuild. Andy Warhol's Silver Factory appeared through film and photographs by Stephen Shore.

A table in a green-walled room covered with black-and-white photographs, prints and papers

Kurt Schwitters's Merzbau was shown as a reconstructed section. Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant were represented by part of the fireplace at Charleston, and Dieter and Björn Roth by a studio corner.

A bright studio corner with a striped rug, a floor lamp, a wooden coat stand and abstract works on the wall

Maud Lewis painted every surface of her small house in Nova Scotia, and she was in the show.

A small painted house with a tiled roof and a green door, set against a bright blue wall in the gallery

Who Were the Artists?

The names include Picasso, Matisse, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Kim Lim and Egon Schiele. Contemporary artists included Kerry James Marshall, Lisa Brice and Walead Beshty, whose cyanotype installation closed the show.

A black-and-white wall photograph of a woman working at a bench, with a small sculpture on a pale green plinth in front of it

On a worktable, brushes, paint pots and a desk lamp sat among papers.

A wooden table covered with brushes, paint pots and a desk lamp and a wooden chair, and a colourful painting at the top right

What Did the Critics Think?

The Evening Standard's Ben Luke was positive and singled out one room, The Secret Life of the Studio. The Spectator's Laura Gascoigne was critical and argued that the show overlooked studios run by teams of assistants.

What Is the Whitechapel Gallery?

Canon Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta founded the gallery in 1901, to show art to people in the East End. It stands at 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, and it absorbed the neighbouring Whitechapel Library in 2009.

I wrote about another show built around a famous studio on my page about Francis Bacon at the Royal Academy.

A Century of the Artist's Studio: Practical Notes

📍 Where: Whitechapel Gallery, 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX.

📅 Open days: 24 February to 5 June 2022.

⏰ Opening: Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm, and until 9pm on First Thursdays.

🎫 Admission: The gallery is free to enter, but the exhibition itself was ticketed.

🚇 Getting there: Aldgate East, less than a minute's walk away. Liverpool Street is about 15 minutes' walk.

🗺️ Nearby: Brick Lane, covered in my Sunday guide, and God's Own Junkyard at Leadenhall Market.

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All photos were taken by Ina/WithinLondon, unless stated otherwise.