Right Hand, Left Hand

Lyndsey Ingram is delighted to present Right Hand, Left Hand; the first exhibition pairing the work of Charlotte Verity and Christopher Le Brun. Both artists of great critical acclaim, their story is one of many decades spent working in parallel but exhibiting apart until now. Deeply sensitive to the natural world, this exhibition also marks an important new chapter in their lives having moved their home and studio from South London to Somerset. The selection on display has been picked specifically by the artists for this show over the course of the year, with the idea of creating a strong and thought-provoking dialogue between their work. It encompasses large-scale paintings by Verity and a selection of prints by Le Brun; all of which capture the sentiment and intensity which lies at the centre of both their practices.

Charlotte and Christopher met in 1974. Their chosen title, Right Hand, Left Hand, refers to their opposing dominant hands but also the distinct paths they have taken as artists since meeting at the Slade. Verity’s work is defined by a strong sense of place. She is rigorous in her observation of nature - paintings develop slowly and in their own time – yet the elements she brings into the studio from outside are wider meditations on the world rather than botanical studies. There is great intention to capture transient beauty; a pile of twigs, small glimpses of sun beneath a tree, the yellow specks in leaves turning brown for autumn. Verity also draws upon the history of art in intriguing and subtle ways – references to photographs by the artist Sally Mann sit alongside nods to colour field painting. She finds the passing of time and changing of the seasons an opportunity for these disparate elements to find a home together.

Le Brun, who was also the President of the Royal Academy from 2011 to 2019, is widely celebrated for his multilayered, abstract painting which draw upon a range of disparate sources; including music, literature and art history. This interest in art history is something which unites his work with Verity’s – there is a sense of them engaging in a journey of seeing together but travelling by different routes. As Verity has commented, ‘when we enter the Louvre, he goes one way and I go the other, but somehow we both end up back together looking at Delacroix.’ Le Brun’s paintings are often complex and layered, yet at their core is a deep sense of pleasure in the act of painting and applying marks to canvas in a wholly instinctual way. His monoprints and woodcuts included in the show can read as landscapes - where hills, rivers and the sky, along with contrasting panes of colour and textures - are suggestive of place, atmosphere and changing light.

Right Hand, Left Hand is an opportunity to see the dialogue between these two British artists, highlighting the subtle resonances of their separate but intimately related practices. Endlessly creative, both Verity and Le Brun share a commitment to observing the world around them, each using their shared experience to capture it in new and exciting ways.