In Conversation: Catherine Goodman and Lily Le Brun

On the occasion of the exhibition ‘Catherine Goodman. Eve’, join us for a conversation between artist Catherine Goodman and writer Lily Le Brun. This discussion will explore the themes and works central to the exhibition, as well as the inspiration behind them. Discussions will centre around the emergence of the figure of Eve in Goodman’s paintings, considering the moral and existential questions elicited by the shaming and blaming of Eve in the story of Genesis, and the relevance of these ancient archetypes in today’s society. Lily Le Brun is a freelance writer on arts and culture based in London. She has written for publications including Apollo, the Economist, the Sunday Times, the Financial Times and AnOther Magazine. Her first book, Looking to Sea, won a 2018 RSL Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction and will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2020. Catherine Goodman trained at London’s Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts, and the Royal Academy Schools, at which she won the Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1987. Goodman has had numerous solo exhibitions, including ‘Portraits from Life’ at the National Portrait Gallery in 2014. She won First Prize in the BP Portrait Award in 2002. Her visual language runs across genres, acknowledging the influence of literature, film, music, drawing from art and life, enriching her work. Goodman has developed her own subtle mythology, the motifs of which carry through her drawings and paintings, whether of real or imagined landscapes and characters, or impressions conjured from memory. She has a longstanding interest in artists’ development and education, as well as the importance of drawing to artistic practice. In 2000, Goodman co-founded the Royal Drawing School with HRH The Prince of Wales in Shoreditch, London to address the increasing absence of observational drawing programmes in art education. This is a free event, but must be booked in advance.