Lawrence’s Artistic Endeavors
 |
| A Holy Family |
Like many writers D.H. Lawrence did not limit his artistic endeavors to mere text. Along with writing several novels, poems, stories, as well as serving as a critic, Lawrence managed to pursue painting within his lifetime. Unfortunately Lawrence was in no means ushered into the art world or greeted with open arms.
The Beginning Near an End
D.H. Lawrence began his visually artistic endeavors late in his life, during the spring of 1926. He and his wife (Frieda von Richthofen) were living in a Villa in Florence when a newly acquainted friend left the Lawrences with 4 canvases. The canvases proved tempting to Lawrence so he picked up a brush and began to paint upon them. In the three years to follow Lawrence managed to produce roughly 13 or so oil paintings and watercolors.
An Exhibition Like No Other
In June of 1929 Lawrence exhibited his work at the (Dorothy) Warren Gallery located in London. There was a large turnout for the event; Lawrence was a well-known author making the public all the more interested in his showing. Yet all involved with the said exhibit were in for an eye-opening experience. Much like his literary work, Lawrence’s paintings were erotic. Lawrence made no attempt to censor his concepts, images, or thoughts. Not only were the abstracted figures nude, they were engaged in shocking acts, positions, and situations. The public, as well as esteemed art critics of the time, were beyond shocked and appalled. Shortly after it’s opening the British police raided the gallery. Thirteen paintings were confiscated and were only returned to Lawrence with his promise that they never be shown in England again.
 |
| A Dream of Exuberant but Also Quaintly Innocent Carnality |
His Art Meshes With His Words
His art followed closely to his writings. One source has this to say about D.H. Lawrence in relation to his writingss and paintings: “Lawrence put life into his paintings as he put life into everything he touched. He painted his late pictures in the same way that he wrote his late poems–as the spontaneous outpouring, without conscious technique, of a vision which had long matured in the consciousness” (The Art of D.H. Lawrence). Each was erotic and each was not accepted by society. Just as Lawrence’s paintings suffered censorship, so did his literature. The year before his art exhibit, 1928, Lawrence published Lady Chatterley’s Lover which too was banned. The ban on the novel was lifted in 1960 over 30 years later. As for Lawrence’s paintings, they too are beginning to resurface. A handful of the paintings can be found in Texas, while others reappeared in London some 74 years after being originally banned there. The Independent , a newspaper, reported in December of 2003 that a local bookstore was showing Lawrence’s work. Waterstone’s bookshop located in central London showed the work in an upstairs exhibition room. The coffee shop located on the main floor was too family oriented to present Lawrence’s still obscene and shocking paintings. The newspaper also reported that the ban on the paintings still remained in effect, yet the police explained that they would not act upon the ban unless they received complaints.
D.H. Lawrence on His own Painting
” ‘I have learnt now not to work from objects, not to have models, not to have a technique… The picture must all come out of the artist’s inside, awareness of forms and figures. We can call it memory, but it is more than memory. It is the image as it lives in the consciousness, alive like a vision, but unknown’ ” (The Art of D.H. Lawrence).
” ‘Art is a form of supremely delicate awarenenss and atonemet– meaning atoneness, the state of being at one with the object…
One may see the divine in natural objects; I saw it today, the the frail, lovely little camellia flowers on long stems, here on the bushy and splendid flowerstalls of the Ramblas in Barcelona. They were different from the usual ft camellias, more like gardenias, poised delicately, and I saw them like a vision. So now, I could paint them. but if I had bought a handful, and started in to paint them ‘from nature’, then I should have lost them. By staring at them I should have lost them’ ” (The Art of D.H. Lawrence).
Back to the D.H. Lawrence Page
References:
“‘Obscene’ art of DH Lawrence goes on show after 70-year ban,” The Independent . December 4, 2003. Accessed on November 5, 2008.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/obscene-art-of-dh-lawrence-goes-on-show-after-70year-ban-575485.html>.
“Rude Awakening,” Telegraph. May 11, 2003. Accessed on November 5, 2008.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/11/05/blawr03.xml&page=1>
( ‘A Holy Family’, ‘A Dream of Exuberant but Also Quaintly Innocent Carnality’ photos from above site.)
Sagar, Keith. The Art of D.H. Lawrence. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1966.
“D.H. Lawrence: We are Transmitters.” Poetry Dispatch and Other Notes from the Underground. Retrieved 28 May 2009 from
http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/dh-lawrence-we-are-transmitters/
Contributors
Ashlie Stanley