Emissaries of the Land is an exhibition of works by Kurt Schwitters and Derek Hyatt at Brantwood, on Lake Coniston. We have only recently "discovered" Kurt Schwitters' work, and we were interested to see this exhibition.
Kurt Schwitters escaped Nazi Germany, where his work had been denounced as "degenerate" by the Nazis. He found himself in Ambleside, where he created a series of exquisite abstract painted constructions which draw from the landscapes around him. It was Derek Hyatt who saw the beauty in Schwitters' work and produced his first exhibition, ten years after his death.
Brantwood's exhibition brings together the paintings of Derek Hyatt, Kurt Schwitters and John Ruskin. The exhibition is presented as a conversation between these three very accomplished, but very different painters, each bringing something unique to the partnership, and each helping to showcase the others' work.
"The exhibition at Brantwood allows Hyatt and Schwitters to come together physically. The chemistry is powerful. Each makes the other more telling. Hyatt releases Schwitters from his historical straitjacket. The seldom seen works on show can be experienced in an entirely different context. Schwitters reveals the playful Hyatt as an artist of genuine strength, a sensitive, almost mystical, painter, above all a true master of colour. The exhibition takes place in the home of a third, well acknowledged, artist of landscape, John Ruskin. The sharp detail of Ruskin’s own work as an artist often veils its deeper sensitivity and thoughtful abstraction. With his two house guests alongside him, Ruskin thus connects directly with the generations who have taken him forward in radical ways, giving Hyatt and Schwitters fresh presence, and drawing from them a similar power."
A beautiful exhibition which gave us a deeper understanding of the work of these three painters.