Sussex Modernism
Fine art is shown with counterculture and pop in this vibrant exhibition revealing how artists of very different kinds responded to the crises of their day through their relationships to Sussex and to the many different movements of modernism.
A monumental head carved in stone by Jacob Epstein (1910) shares a space with a seven-metre-long painting by Ivon Hitchens (1960) and a large wall hanging made with cellophane by Ethel Mairet’s Workshop (1940s). A magical woodland scene by surrealist Carlyle Brown (1948) appears alongside an Edward Burne-Jones tapestry (1886), a film by Neo-Naturist Jennifer Binnie (c. 1980), and a life-sized goddess by Alexi Marshall (2024).
Spanning from the late nineteenth century to the present, this exhibition features surprising juxtapositions and jostling perspectives. It traces artworks' varied, and sometimes conflicting, relationships to different modernist movements. It tells an original story about the ways in which art, cultures, and places outside of metropolitan centres have been seen.
Sussex is shown to be a place always, and ever, in flux. Dissident retreat is explored through the work of Virginia Woolf, Marion Milner and Grace Pailthorpe, dreamy seascapes by David Jones, marine visions by Edith Rimmington, Edward Wadsworth and Gluck, and contemporary sculptural installations by Becky Beasley. The show also ventures into the urban streets, seedy bars and rubbish dumps that frequent the countercultural art of Jeff Keen, Arnold Daghani and Edward Burra.
Places are reimagined through the eyes of different artists, both historic and contemporary. Pett Level inspired Epstein to conceive of a robot drilling into the rock (c. 1913). But it also provided a backdrop for David Bowie in the music video for Ashes to Ashes (1980), in which he wears a Pierrot clown costume, and featured more recently in a playful, postmodern painting (2020) by Sophie Barber (who also depicted musician Kendrick Lamar leaving Camber Sands).
Famous figures appear alongside artists who had regional rather than national power; avant-garde artists who used 'provincial' as an insult are juxtaposed with those who supported 'new regionalism'; fine art is shown with counterculture and pop. This exhibition reveals that there is much to be learned from comparing how artists of very different kinds drew on the capacities of their locations to respond to the crises of their day.
The exhibition is curated by Dr Hope Wolf (University of Sussex) and based on Wolf’s book Sussex Modernism (Yale University Press, 2025).
Please note: Entry times on Sunday are from 10.15am, due to Yoga in the Gallery sessions.
Download Sussex Modernism Large print guide
Lunchtime Conversation: Curating Sussex Modernism
Thursday 19 June & Saturday 12 July
Free with exhibition ticket
Linocut Tarot with Alexi Marshall
Saturday 5 July, 11.00am to 4.30pm
£80, concessions available
Saturday Breakfast Film Club: Borderline with intro by Dr Hope Wolf
Saturday 12 July, 11.00am
£5, concessions available
The South Downs Songbook: Orchestra of Sound and Light with Rachel Farago, voice
Sunday 13 July, 2.00pm to 3.00pm
£15, concessions available
Panel Discussion: What does it mean to be together?
Saturday 6 September, 2.30pm to 3.30pm
£14, concessions available
BSL Tour of Sussex Modernism
Saturday 13 September, 2.30pm to 3.30pm
Free (exhibition ticket required)
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