Monday Muse
Monday Muse
Interview: Chantal Joffe
Interview
Chantal Joffe
Photography
Isabelle Young
Interview
Chantal Joffe
Photography
Isabelle Young
The British painter Chantal Joffe is known for her luscious, glorious and profound portraits. Often towering in size over the viewer, her psychologically-charged works honour the complex inner worlds of her subjects, often women she admires or has met, or her own sisters, daughter and mother. Joffe’s works draw you in with their emotional force and sheer vitality – a reason she has been celebrated in exhibitions around the world (with two coming up in Cornwall and Paris very soon). We caught up with Joffe to hear more about studio life, how motherhood has shaped her vision of the world, and why she’s shifting her gaze to the men in her life in her most recent body of work.
THE WICK:
What does a typical Monday look like for you?
Chantal Joffe: I walk to my studio, preferably along the canal, I arrive and change into my painting clothes and shoes and make a strong cup of tea, then after that often I mess around for a while before settling to work: look at books, emails, prime panels…then I’ll settle down to paint or draw with a CD playing, usually on a loop, I’ll paint with breaks to wash my brushes or eat lunch and then walk home.
TW: You are celebrated for your portraits of women, including your own mother and daughter. How have your experiences of motherhood shaped your vision as a painter?
CJ: Becoming a mother changed me a lot, and it took me a long time to realise what a different world I was now living in. Raising my daughter and being her mother is the thing in my life of which I am most proud – the person she has become and the relationship we have. I think the work I make is a reaction to that, and an attempt to describe the life we have and the world we occupy, often painting is a form of autobiography for me.
TW: Your upcoming exhibition at Skarstedt Paris, The Dog’s Birthday, is your first solo exhibition in Paris since 2001. Why Paris, why now?
CJ: I’m excited to show in Paris -I have loved the work of Vuillard my whole life and I see this work as a reaction to that or at least an attempt to have a conversation with his work.
TW: You studied at Camberwell College of Art, Glasgow School of Art, and later Royal College of Art. Why do you believe access to arts and culture is important and what is one change you would like to see in this government?
CJ: When I was at Camberwell the National Gallery was where I changed buses on my way to get there, and I could wander in free of charge and look for as long as I wanted. The one change I would make is to make all exhibitions free for students and keep all museums and galleries free for everyone,now to see a special exhibit at a museum it can cost as much as 28 pounds,I would make it free for people under 25 -art is life-changing for everyone.
“The one change I would make is to make all exhibitions free for students and keep all museums and galleries free for everyone.”
TW: Your next exhibition — at Newlyn Art Gallery, opening in May — features a new body of work, and a shift in subject matter, to paintings exploring masculinity. What has informed this new work?
CJ: The show in Penzance is called The Prince – it started with a group of paintings of my partner naked, they’re really big – we listened to a CD of the Goldberg Variations while I painted and he lay in a sort of dream. Then I painted my friend Charlie Porter in a group of paintings made after the death of his parents and the idea of making a show including both sets of pictures felt exciting, like looking at the world from a different angle.
TW: You’re famous for your practice of portraiture. If you could have anyone paint your portrait, who would it be and why?
CJ:
If I could have anyone paint me it would be Henry Taylor, I love his work. I love the immediacy and energy and ambition of it -and I’d love to spend time watching him paint and talking to him.
TW: Aside from painting, we hear you’re an avid reader. What is the one book you would pass on and why?
CJ: The book I would recommend is Night Studio by Musa Mayer, a memoir about growing up as Philip Guston’s daughter. It’s a very honest description of being the child of an artist and it’s an extraordinary book.
TW: Your favourite Culturally Curious place in North London to visit when you’re taking a break from work at your studio?
CJ: One of my favourite places to go when I’m not working is the Barbican ,the exhibitions at the moment of Noah Davis are heartbreaking and beautiful – and I love to wander around the Barbican centre. I feel very happy just to drink tea in the foyer or go to the library there.
TW: Who is your ultimate Monday Muse?
