Launching on 7 November, our next exhibition uses the collection of the Stanley Spencer Gallery to look at what inspired him and show how his reality and imagination merged.

The exhibition will invite the viewer to look with their own eyes beyond what they see, just as Spencer did.

“Everything has a sort of double meaning for me, there’s the ordinary everyday meaning of things, and the imaginary meaning about it all, and I wanted to bring these things together.”                                 

Stanley Spencer (1891 – 1959)

Stanley Spencer’s art is autobiographical, personal and strangely mysterious, and at times beyond comprehension to an unseeing eye.

One of the most original artists of his era, primarily influenced by his personal reality and extraordinary imagination, Spencer’s originality flows from his ability not only to see with his eyes but with his soul. 

Each work is layered: a mixture of acutely observed reality, memory, fantasy and spirituality. Spencer’s artistic impulse drove his very being, his genius lying in his ability to see beyond visual reality.