Norwich Castle: Gerard Stamp- Conquest Norfolk’s Norman legacy reflected in watercolour

Location: Colman Project Space
Date: Saturday 30 March – Sunday 29 September

Telephone: 01603 495897 
Email: museums@norfolk.gov.uk

Gerard Stamp went to school under the shadow of Norwich Cathedral and during those years, developed a passion for painting and drawing mediaeval buildings, as well as a love of John Sell Cotman’s work. Ancient architecture was all around, and Cotman’s drawings, watercolours, paintings and prints could be studied at Norwich Castle. Originally more interested in Cotman’s draughtsmanship, Stamp collected his etchings of Norfolk antiquities. Later he started admiring the effortless poetry of the Norwich School artist’s watercolour washes, learning from his technique and finding his own painting ‘voice’ in the process.

Stamp has painted and sketched many of Norfolk’s Norman buildings before. For this exhibition he was asked to revisit and interpret them anew: the result is a series of stunning views of some of Norfolk’s architectural gems which, in their timelessness, complement Cotman’s earlier interpretation. These new works are available for sale.

"Gerard Stamp turns architecture into art," wrote Simon Jenkins in the introduction to his 2008 exhibition Mediaeval in Burnham Market’s Grapevine Gallery. "He converts stone and brick, light and shadow, the tilt of a roof and the line of a wall into a living, exhilarating picture."