Derek Jarman - Protest!

A major retrospective of the work of one of the most influential figures in 20th century British culture.

This exhibition focused on the diverse strands of Jarman’s practice as a painter, film-maker, writer, set designer, gardener and political activist. His work brought together his engagement with both art and society as well as his political activism and his individual experiences within the AIDs crisis. This exhibition had major bodies of work that were created in the 1960s-1990s, some of which had never been seen in public.

Some of the works that stood out are included in the images above. Especially moving was the work Fragments: Torso (c.1975), the way that he had broken down the human figure into pieces was enlightening, it spoke to how his mind may have felt during a time when homosexuality had only really been brought to the forefront of society as the legalisation only happened less than a decade before and acceptance wasn't widely welcome. This work is also encased in a wooden frame which also highlights the box that some homosexual people might have felt during this time.

The Pleasures of Italy (1979) is fascinating, the way he used a muted background colour and then bold, gestural lines to create the shapes throughout the work. On researching this work, an abundance of messages had been hidden within the work that was discovered by an independent conservator, Joanne Shepard, these were discovered when she backlit the works during a technical appraisal for the show Protest!

“Examining the painting for this show, a chance back-lighting revealed dozens of inscriptions beneath the paint, deliberately and almost completely painted out, some featuring magical symbols substituted for individual letters,” writes Shepard. The words and markings reflect his fascination with alchemy while phrases such as “Me and My Shadow” draw on Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung’s philosophy (Harris, 2019).

Other works in this exhibition that were enticing, were his selection of Black Paintings that showed what some would find sexually explicit which at the time was not something that was shown in artworks. Though these are known as the Black Paintings Jarman used moving lines to add colour to these dark canvases, the work speaks to the internal struggles that a homosexual would have been experiencing during these times.

In 1993 One day's medication was created, this work highlights the personal struggles that Jarman was going through on his journey with AIDs. He used his medication containers to demonstrate how he fought this illness on a daily basis and by sticking the receptacles on a muted background it makes you think, what would it have been like to have been in his shoes? (Searle, 2021).

Harris, G., 2019. [online] Authenticationinart.org. Available at: <https://authenticationinart.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Conservator-discovers-secret-scrawls-hidden-beneath-Derek-Jarman-painting-Art-Newspaper.pdf> [Accessed 22 March 2022].

Searle, A., 2021. Derek Jarman: Protest! review – ‘Coherence is overrated’. Guardian, [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/06/derek-jarman-protest-review-manchester-art-gallery-film-paintings> [Accessed 22 March 2022].