I am so excited to say that my guest, returning for his second interview on the GWA Podcast, is the esteemed American writer, critic, and curator, Hilton Als…
A staff writer at The New Yorker for over 30 years, and a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2017 and a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing, Als is the author of numerous books. He is a teaching professor at Berkeley,
Last time Als came on the podcast, we discussed two significant artists for him, the photographer, Diane Arbus; and the painter of people, Alice Neel – the latter of whom he has curated exhibitions of, exploring her life in uptown Manhattan, and her various friendships with artists, writers, dancers, neighbours and social activists. 119
But today I meet Hilton on the occasion of a new exhibition he has curated: Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World at Michael Werner Gallery in London, which explores the extraordinary and complex life of Creole-British writer, Jean Rhys, born in Dominica in 1890 to plantation owners, who grew up a white person, or Creole, in a largely Black society, and moved to Britain aged 16 and lived most of her life in Europe until her death in 1979.
She was known for telling stories of women in exile, often at the whim of powerful men, and celebrated for her last and best-selling novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, published 1966, that told the life story of the so-called mad woman in the attic, Antoinette Cosway, from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, from Cosway’s perspective.
And what a beautiful, complex, show this is. Featuring Hurvin Anderson, Celia Paul, Gwen John, Sarah Lucas, Kara Walker, and more, it is a rich portrait of a complex figure who lived between worlds, cultures, reality and fiction. And I can’t wait to find out more.
Postures: Jean Rhys in the Modern World is at Michael Werner Gallery, London, until 22 November. For more on the show: https://www.michaelwerner.com/exhibitions/postures-jean-rhys-in-the-modern-world.
Books/poems mentioned:
Good Morning, Midnight - Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
Smile Please - Jean Rhys
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Self-Portrait - Celia Paul
Jean Rhys (poem) - Derek Walcott
Autobiography of My Mother - Jamaica Kincaid
A View of The Empire at Sunset - Caryl Phillips
Artists/writers mentioned:
Hurvin Anderson
Kara Walker
Eugène Atget
Eugène Leroy
Cynthia Lahti
Francis Picabia
Celia Paul
Gwen John
Augustus John
Sarah Lucas
Hans Bellmer
Caryl Phillips
Jamaica Kincaid
Derek Walcott
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THIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION:
https://www.famm.com/en/
https://www.instagram.com/famm_mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037
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Katy Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel
Sound editing by Nada Smiljanic
Music by Ben Wetherfield