Local Solicitors Sponsor Major Exhibition
A major exhibition at the Royal Cornwall Museum is being sponsored by Truro-based Foot Anstey Solicitors.
Opening on 3 October, the retrospective exhibition will showcase the work of leading contemporary artist Romi Behrens who has been painting in Cornwall for the last fifty years. More than thirty of her canvases will be on display – including St Ives Church, Lanyon Quoit and Bird from Paradise Park.
It is the first time that Romi, who lives near Penzance, has had a large exhibition staged in the county – although her list of exhibitions elsewhere includes the Royal Academy, a number of other London galleries and the Arnolfini in Bristol.
Foot Anstey became the Royal Cornwall Museum’s business partner earlier this year. Truro based partner Mark Chanter said ’’Foot Anstey is committed to supporting local communities and believes a partnership with the arts can further the cultural outlook of people and develop their passion for learning. We are therefore delighted to be sponsoring the Romi Behren’s retrospective.
“Romi first came to Cornwall in 1959 and, since that time, has made a significant contribution to Cornish art. The museum does a wonderful job of preserving and promoting Cornish heritage and Foot Anstey is very proud to support them in that task.”
Primarily known for her portraiture, Romi briefly attended Penzance Art School but is otherwise self-taught. She is a life member of the Newlyn Art Gallery and has been widely acclaimed for work that is marked by instinctiveness, spontaneity and natural confidence in both form and composition.
Fellow artist Jeremy Le Grice said: “Romi’s portraits are microcosms of sheer delight, the intensity of her pleasure communicating instantly and the rapidity of her application hard pressed to keep up with the fleeting nature of her intuition and insight.
“With the confidence and knowledge Romi displays in her maturity, areas of canvas now speak for themselves in her paintings. This paradoxically increases the completeness with the sitter spotlit in a spontaneous blaze of brushwork and colour placed on an immaculate white ground. Romi carries into her work as essential humility and it is this quality that is carrying her to ever greater heights as a portraitist.’
Romi will be in the museum all day on Tuesday 27 October to make portraits of visitors to her exhibition. Proceeds from this will raise funds for the Royal Institution of Cornwall’s endowment.
Romi, who has just completed a portrait of Front Row presenter Kirsty Lang’s son Callum, said she was looking forward to exhibiting at the museum.
“I’m very excited. The gallery space at the museum is beautiful. I can’t wait to see my paintings hung there.”
The exhibition will run from 3 October to 30 January (although the museum will be closed from 5 December, reopening on Saturday 9 January). For more information visit www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk or call 01872 272205 and dial ‘0’.
Published 17/09/2009
