A pupil of Oskar Kokoschka in the sixties, an exhibitor with Hendrikus Chabot, Corneille and Jan Sluijters among others, Suzanne Perlman (née Sternberg) has had a remarkable artistic career spanning seven decades and three continents. Her distinctive paintings “capture the particular feel of the place while abating one of her expressionist dash” – John Russell Taylor, The Times, Critics Choice.
Perlman was born in Budapest in 1923 to a family of art and antique dealers and grew up surrounded by art and artists. After marrying her Dutch husband Henri in 1939, Suzanne moved to Rotterdam. However, her time there was cut short as the Second World War engulfed Europe. The couple’s narrow escape from Nazi persecution via Paris to the Caribbean island of Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, where they lived for the next four decades, ‘is a story of Hollywood proportions’. Suzanne began her artistic career in Curaçao painting the island and its people and she was awarded the Officer of the Royal Order of Oranje Nassau (Dutch equivalent of a Damehood) in recognition of her outstanding contributions to art.
She has been a resident of London since the eighties and The Dutch Centre in the City of London is proud to present a major exhibition of her work in 2018. The exhibition ‘SUZANNE PERLMAN | CATCHING THE EPHEMERAL’ presents around 25 key paintings and works on paper from three main periods of her artistic
career: pictures made in Curaçao between 1941 and 1971; those created in the United States between 1970 and 1978; and works painted in London between 2002 and 2018.
The exhibition title CATCHING THE EPHEMERAL refers to Perlman’s express aim to capture the ‘fleeting moment of insight’ in her work. A feature that she feels is the ‘intrinsic quality’ of a work of art. She refers to her time working with Oskar Kokoschka: “The very first impression of a vision is crucial to retain.” She remembers Kokoschka saying. “This cannot be taught, but you (Suzanne) can do it!”
Highlights include the emotionally charged portrait Curaçao Male, the winner of the 1971 Prix de la France Afrique of the Grand Palais in Paris, a vibrantly sensuous 2002 Self-Portrait (now in the “Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection”), and Bank Holiday in St James’s Park (2005), a work described by art historian and author Philip Vann as “a multitude of figures – including a young skateboarder, a balloon seller and hip young lovers (one playing a cello) – in a teeming yet harmonious composition, evoking a gracefully informal Arcadia.”
| Duration | 10 May 2018 - 31 August 2018 |
| Times | Mon-Fri 10am-4pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Dutch Centre |
| Address | 7 Austin Friars, London EC2N 2HA, , |
| Contact | +44 (0)20 7588 1684 / matthew@perlmanart.com / http://www.dutchcentre.com |