The Worlds of Rex Whistler

A cultural social event, open to all! 

Join Sketch Club Falmouth and The Poly for an illustrated talk by art historian Dr Nikki Frater, exploring the fascinating life and career of Rex Whistler. The talk will take place in The Poly’s top-floor gallery. 

For those who would like to, there will also be an opportunity to sketch from your seat during the talk, with small clipboards provided. 

Rex Whistler was one of the most versatile and successful artists of the English interwar period who could move between murals, illustration, theatre design, commercial art and portraiture with ease and flair. Launched into the spotlight in 1927 with his beautiful mural for the Tate Gallery Restaurant, his keen wit and mastery of trompe l’oeil kept him in demand with patrons wanting their own immersive imaginary worlds on their grand walls. His career also encompassed celebrated illustrations for Gulliver’s Travels and Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales; designs and costumes for The Rake’s Progress ballet, still used by the Royal Opera House; groundbreaking advertisements for Shell and BP; and countless portraits of friends, patrons and society figures – from Cecil Beaton to the Royal Family. 

In recent years his early mural at the Tate Gallery has been at the heart of a controversy around troubling imagery within it, now considered to be racist. How should galleries respond to shifting cultural opinion about the artworks on their walls and how do we react as viewers? 

Join art historian Dr Nikki Frater, an expert in the work of Rex Whistler, for an illustrated talk about the life and career of this fascinating artist and a chance to discuss these important issues.

The Worlds of Rex Whistler: Beauty, Controversy & Conversation An illustrated talk by Dr Nikki Frater 

Wednesday 4th November 5.00pm 

Tickets: £10.00

A £1 Poly Fund payment is added to each ticket sold. A 50p booking fee is also applied per ticket for online and telephone transactions.