Celia Paul’s “Letters to Gwen John”

Acclaimed artist and writer Celia Paul joins Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher to speak about her latest book "Letters to Gwen John", an epistolary memoir addressed to the Welsh painter Gwen John.

By LARB Radio HourMay 13, 2022

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Kate Wolf and Medaya Ocher are joined by acclaimed artist and writer Celia Paul to speak about her latest book Letters to Gwen John, an epistolary memoir addressed to the Welsh painter Gwen John, who lived and worked in Paris in the late 19th and early 20th century. Paul explores the connections between herself and John, who was a passionate defender of her own artistic practice, as well the lover of a much older, much more established man, the sculptor and painter Auguste Rodin. In her letters to John, Paul considers what it means to be a woman and an artist, as well as a mother and a romantic partner.

Also, Douglas Stuart, author of Young Mungo, returns to recommend Maria McCann’s As Meat Loves Salt.