‘Alfred Wallis: An Artists’ Artist’ is scheduled to run from 21 November 2026 to 2 May 2027.
The exhibition focuses on the fisherman-turned-artist whose bold, instinctive paintings inspired a generation of modern British artists, including Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. Wallis started painting at the age of 70 and captured the harbours, fishing boats and coastlines of Cornwall from memory, working on discarded cardboard, packaging and household materials.
His bold compositions, flattened perspective and instinctive use of colour attracted artists including Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Christopher Wood, Peter Lanyon and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. Bringing together Wallis’s paintings and works by artists who collected and championed him, the exhibition examines his influence on modernist approaches to perspective, form, colour and composition.
The exhibition is curated by James Scott.
