In this talk, the art historian Michael Charlesworth sheds light on the iconic queer filmmaker Derek Jarman and his artistic practice, with special reference to Jarman's ecological awareness. Charlesworth draws on Jarman's films The Last of England and The Garden, his paintings — especially his GBH series (1984) and his late landscapes from the 1990s — and the features he made in his famous garden at Dungeness. He also reflects on Jarman's contributions as a writer, particularly the poetry of voice-overs in his films. In a novel approach to Jarman's cinema Charlesworth emphasises themes and artistry rather than narrative. The talk will conclude with a drinks reception.

About the speaker

Michael Charlesworth published his second book about Derek Jarman, Derek Jarman's Visionary Arts: Exploring Land and Depth, in summer 2024. His earlier book, Derek Jarman (Reaktion Books, 2011) has been translated into Russian, Turkish and Chinese. He taught art history at the University of Texas at Austin for 30 years, specialising in Nineteenth-Century European art. He is also the author of The Modern Culture of Reginald Farrer: Landscape, Literature and Buddhism (Legenda, 2018), about a slightly disabled queer gardener, plant collector and travel-writer who went to Ceylon in 1908 to become a Buddhist; and Landscape and Vision in Nineteenth-Century Britain and France (Ashgate, 2008: despite the title the book covers the period 1745-1903). Charlesworth's essays on panoramic drawing as military intelligence-gathering; the Yorkshire garden of a Jacobite peer; the interpretation of Stourhead; the similarities between Tolkien and Ford Madox Ford; and on early photography, are in various scholarly journals.