At Michael Werner Gallery, London, a new exhibition explores the author’s world. Its curator – a long-time admirer – discusses her character and the show’s conception
Over the past six years, writer and critic Hilton Als has curated several exhibitions dedicated to exploring the lives of literary figures, including James Baldwin at David Zwirner, New York (2019) and Joan Didion at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022–23). Now, at Michael Werner Gallery in London, an exquisite selection of contemporary and historical artworks will be displayed alongside books and ephemera to evoke the life and work of the writer Jean Rhys.
Rhys was born in 1890 on the Caribbean island of Dominica to a Welsh father and a third-generation Creole mother of Scottish ancestry. Her experiences growing up as a white Creole person in a predominantly Black society shaped her identity and later informed her writing. In 1907, Rhys left Dominica for schooling in England, after which she led a peripatetic life that included working as a model. After an early career on the margins, she published several novels and short stories in the 1920s and ’30s that were noted for their spare, melancholic style. After a long absence, she returned to acclaim with Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) and is now regarded as a vital feminist and postcolonial voice. Here, Sean Burns speaks with Als about Rhys’s character, her influence and the conception of the exhibition.
