Ruth Leon recommends… Noel Coward: Art & Style – Exhibition

Noel Coward: Art & Style – Exhibition
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​Before the pandemic, nearly three years ago, I was asked to lend a painting to a forthcoming exhibition to be called Noël Coward: Art & Style. Off it went, packed up safely, expecting to be off my wall for six months. Then came Covid and the original opening at the Guildhall Art Gallery  in the City of London was delayed again and again. It finally opened in June 2021 when the pandemic was in full swing so, for a long time, I didn’t see it.
 
Many other lovers of the work of ‘The Playboy of the West End World’ were also too nervous to be in a public place, which is a great pity because it was a fabulous exhibition, containing not just paintings and photographs, but also all the artefacts of a unique life of one of our most productive and talented artists, whose work straddled the entire world of entertainment, society and art.
 
The Exhibition closed in December but the Noël Coward Foundation and Archive Trust had the good sense to commission a video tour which shows the best of the exhibition and the life of this remarkable man.
 
 Brad Rosenstein, the curator of Noël Coward: Art & Style, guides viewers, in an 8-minute walkthrough, through the four main sections: London Calling; Ways and Means; Design for Living; and Marvellous Party, which fans will immediately recognise as Coward titles.
 
My painting is now back on my wall after far longer than I or the curators thought it would be absent, but I was honoured to contribute to this fine exhibition. This video tour is an excellent memento and, for the uninitiated, an introduction to Noel Coward.   

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