We Think the World of You
People and Dogs Drawn Together
David Remfry R.A
25 October 2023 – 28 January 2024
Works by contemporary British painter, David Remfry RA, will be on display at the Willis Museum and Sainsbury Gallery in Basingstoke from Wednesday 25 October. The exhibition, titled We Think the World of You People and Dogs Drawn Together explores the artist’s fascination with the relationships that develop between dogs and their owners.
Remfry grew up in Hull and is best known for his large-scale watercolours, often of people dancing, his landscapes of New York and his portraits of residents and friends painted and drawn during his time in New York City. Now living and working in London, he has curated several exhibitions, notably the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition 2023 and was recently a Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy Schools.
In an era when dogs are more likely to have Instagram accounts than appear in exhibitions by Royal Academicians, David Remfry has worked for over 15 years on a series of portraits that reveal the relationships between dogs and their owners. Dogs have long been a common visual motif in western art and have been called the artist’s best friend, both for their role as a companion and life model. Known for their loyalty, in the Middle Ages dogs were carved on the feet of their master’s effigies to watch over them as they left this world for the next. More recently, artists such as Frieda Kahlo and Lucien Freud were known to have a fondness for animals and constantly featured their beloved dogs in their paintings.
This show is a departure from Remfry’s usual style. While working in his studio at the infamous Chelsea Hotel in New York City, Remfry invited neighbours and friends to sit for him. He discovered that many friends had dogs in New York, and they started coming along for the sittings. He was captivated by the moving tales of how they came to find each other and the mutual understanding and sympathy of these partnerships. Over the years sitters have included celebrities Alan Cumming, Susan Sarandon and Ethan Hawke – and their pets. Some of these stories appear alongside the works presented in this special exhibition in Basingstoke.
David commented, “This series of paintings on display at the Willis Museum began when actor Alan Cumming arrived for a sitting at my studio in New York City at the Chelsea Hotel, with a rescue dog named Honey. About 30 years ago I had a dog called Blue, and drawing Alan and Honey reminded me of the deep bond that exists between dogs and their owners and how these relationships can enrich our lives. This quickly became a series of paintings exploring these relationships; the paintings are shown beside the wonderful stories the owners told me about how they came to find each other.”
The title, We Think the World of You, is borrowed from a book by AJ Ackerley which tells the story of how Ackerley acquired his Alsatian, a pet immortalised in the 1956 memoir, My Dog Tulip.
For more information about We Think the World of You, People and Dogs Drawn Together, please visit https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/event/we-think-world-you.