Professor Graham Chesters, Chair of The Philip Larkin Society, talks about Larkin’s art collection and about how the pictures he purchased, the pictures he was given, the pictures he liked, all build up to a portrait of the poet-artist himself and his artistic taste.
Larkin was a great poet, a brilliant librarian, a first-rate jazz critic, a talented photographer and an amateur doodler. These last two gifts give the clue to his visual imagination. But it is there in the poetry too. What should we expect from his own personal gallery? The pictures he purchased, the pictures he was given, the pictures he liked, all build up to a portrait of the poet-artist himself. Yet little has been said about them. There’s a reason for this: they appear to be blighted by mystery and bad fortune. His most expensive purchase was stolen after his death. Others have disappeared only to be rediscovered years later. A scene claimed to be of Hull turned out to be of Glasgow. This brief survey of Larkin’s paintings is intended to give an insight into his artistic taste.
A talk given at the Treasure House, Beverley in April 2023 during the 'Home Is So Sad' Exhibition.
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