StoreDerek Jarman
1942–1994
Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. His practice - as diverse as it was prolific - spanned painting, sculpture, film, writing, stage design, gardening and activism.
Studying at the Slade School of Fine Art in the 1960s, Jarman was equally attentive to developments in film and theatre design as to painting, beginning his career designing the sets for Frederick Ashton's Jazz Calendar at the Royal Opera House, John Gielgud's Don Giovanni at the London Coliseum, and for the films of Ken Russell. All the while Jarman was gaining increasing recognition for his painting, going from exhibiting as part of the Young Contemporaries at Tate, London, to frequent shows at the likes of the Lisson, Edward Tohah and Richard Salmon galleries.
Jarman was an outspoken campaigner for LGBTQIA+ rights, and was one of the first public figures in the UK to raise awareness for those living with HIV and AIDS, announcing his own HIV diagnosis on radio in 1986.
From there Jarman entered a period of prolific writing, publishing his celebrated memoir Modern Nature in 1991, an account that chronicled another of his crowning artistic achievements: his garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, a site that continues to welcome visitors today. The canvases of his last years - assemblages of gutter press homophobic headlines, religious iconography, plants, rubbish, and fierce poetic screeds scored into oil paint - speak of an artist whose legacy precedes him.
Derek Jarman
1942 – 1994
Born London, UK
Education
1963 – 1967 Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK
1960 – 1963 King’s College London, UK
Selected solo exhibitions
2026
Derek Jarman Retrospective, Austrian Film Museum, Vienna, Austria (forthcoming)
2025
Derek Jarman Film Retrospective, The Pompidou Centre in collaboration with mk2 Bibliothèque, Paris, France
The Black Paintings: A Chronology Part Ⅰ: 1984-1987, Amanda Wilkinson, London, UK
The Black Paintings: A Chronology Part Ⅱ: 1988-1991, Amanda Wilkinson, London
Delphinium Days, UNSW, Sydney Australia
2024
Digging in Another Time: Derek Jarman’s Modern
Nature, Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, UK
Delphinium Days, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2023
Queer, Amanda Wilkinson, London, UK
Derek Jarman, Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan
2022 PROTEST!, Manchester Art Gallery, UK
Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK
2021
Dead Souls Whisper (1986-1993), Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry – le Crédac,France
2020
Derek Jarman: My garden’s boundaries are the horizon, Garden Museum, London, UK
The Last of England, VOID, Derry, Ireland
2019
PROTEST!, IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
Shadow Is the Queen of Colour, Amanda Wilkinson, London, UK
2017 The Last of England, Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
2014
Pandemonium: Derek Jarman, King’s Cultural Institute, London, UK
2013
Black Paintings and Waiting for Waiting for Godot, Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
2008
Derek Jarman: Brutal Beauty, curated by Isaac Julien, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
2000
Paintings and collages, Gandy Gallery, Bratislava, Slovakia
1996
Derek Jarman: A Retrospective, Barbican, London, UK
1994
Evil Queen: The Last Paintings, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, UK
1992
Queer, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
Queer, City Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
1990
Luminous Darkness: Paintings by Derek Jarman, Space T33, Tokyo, Japan
1989
Derek Jarman: Peintures, Accatone, Paris, France
1988
Derek Jarman, Dom Kulture, Belgrade, Serbia
1984
Derek Jarman, ICA Upper Gallery, London, UK
1982
Derek Jarman, Edward Totah Gallery, London, UK
1981
Derek Jarman’s Still Lives, World’s End Art Gallery, London, UK
1971
Derek Jarman: Drawings, paintings and designs for “The
Devils”, 13 Bankside, London, UK
Selected group exhibitions
2026
Flare Up, Goldsmiths Center for Contemporary Art, London, UK (forthcoming)
2025
Art and affections, HIV-AIDS in Italy. 1982-1996, Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy
2023
Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Exposes, Palais De Tokyo, Paris, France
Monochrome Multitudes, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago
2022
Radical Landscapes, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
2021
The Garden. Cinematics of the soil, Silent Green, Berlin, Germany
2019
Gubbinal, Project Native Informant, London, UK
This is my body - My body is your body - My body is the
body of the word, Le Delta, New Cultural Art Center, Namur, Belgium
La Becque Résidence d’Artistes, Inspired by Derek
Jarman, La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland
Modern Nature, Drawing Room, London, UK
2018
Give Up The Ghost, Baltic Triennial BT13, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, Estonia
This is Now – Film and Video After Punk, London Gallery West, London, UK
The Coming Community, Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2017
LA MOVIDA, Home Gallery, Manchester, UK
A LANDSCAPE, Wilkinson Gallery, London Glasgow
Film Festival, Glasgow, UK
2016
Pure Romance: Art and the Romantic Sensibility, The Redfern Gallery, London, UK
2013
Almost Bliss: Notes on Derek Jarman’ s Blue, Chelsea Space, London, UK
1993
Toxo included in Royal Academy Summer Show, Royal Academy, London, UK
Queer, Palazzo delle Esposizione, Rome, Italy
Dead Sexy, Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance, UK
1992
At Your Own Risk, Art Gallery & Museum, Glasgow, UK
New Paintings, Karsten Schubert Gallery, London, UK
‘Designing Yourself’: Creativity in Everyday Life, Design Museum, London, UK
Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, USA
1989
New Paintings, Richard Salmon Ltd., London, UK
Pintures de l’Apocalipsi, Galeria Ambit, Barcelona, Spain
The Marsh in War and Peace, Lydd Airport & Martello Tower, Dymchurch, Romney, UK
Marsh Summer Exhibition, Lyth Arts Centre, Lyth, Scotland, Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
Installation, National Review of Live Art, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
1987
Night Life and Other Recent Paintings, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Charting Time: an exhibition of artists’ drawings, notes and diagrams for film and video, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
1986
Caravaggio Suite, 9 paintings shown at the Tate as one of the shortlisted artists for the 1986 Turner Prize, London, UK
1981
Group exhibition, B2 Gallery, London, UK
1976
American Bicentennial Exhibition, DuBose Gallery, Houston, Texas, USA
1975
New London in New York, Hal Bromm Works of Art, New York, USA
1973
Open Studio-Warehouse, Butler’s Wharf, London, UK
1972
Drawing, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK
1971
Visual Poetries, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
Slade Centenary Exhibition, Diploma Galleries, Burlington House, London, UK
1969
The English Landscape Tradition in the 20th Century, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
1968
John Moores’ Sixth Biennial Exhibition, Walker Gallery, Liverpool, UK
Exhibition of Ballet Designs, Wright Hepburn Gallery, London, UK
1967
Young Contemporaries, Tate Gallery. London, UK
Opening Exhibition, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Edinburgh Open Hundred, David Hume Tower, Edinburgh, UK
Joint Exhibition, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
Cinquieme Biennale des Jeunes Artistes, Musée d’Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
1966
Michael Jarman, Rimmell Gallery, UK
1961
University of London Union Art Exhibition, London, UK
Michael Jarman, Watford Public Library, UK
1960
Michael Jarman, True Lovers’ Knot, Northwood, UK
Sixth International Amateur Art Exhibition, Warwick Square, London, UK
Selected screenings
2026
Deep Blue Love: Derek Jarman, Luke Fowler, and Sarah Wood, Tate Britian, London, UK
2025
The Angelic Conversation, Living Canvas at IMMA, Dublin, Ireland
2022
Jarman at HOME, Manchester, UK
2020
The Museum for All, the Museum for Dogs, Blue screenings and installation, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2019
Screening selection of 8mm works, New Contemporaries 70th Anniversary Conference, Courtauld Institute, London, UK
Blue as part of a satellite programme around the exhibition David Wojnarowicz, Mudam Luxembourg
2018
Derek Jarman Now, screening of Glitterbug, Wittgenstein and Blue Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2017
Derek Jarman: Blue, Tate Britain, London, UK
2008
Lightbox: Derek Jarman, Tate Britain, London, UK
1993
Screening of Blue at the Venice Biennale
Selected feature films
Glitterbug (1994), Blue (1993), Wittgenstein (1993), Edward II (1991), The Garden (1990), War Requiem (1989), The Last of England (1988), Caravaggio (1986), The Angelic Conversation (1985), The Tempest (1979), Jubilee (1978), Sebastiane (1976)
Selected short films highlights:
Pet Shop Boys on tour (1990), L’ispirazione (1988), Depuis le Jour (1987), Out of Hand (1987), I Cry Too (1987), In the Pouring Rain (1987), It’s a Sin (1987), Rent (1987), The Queen is Dead: Three Songs by The Smiths (1986), Ask (1986), Whistling in the Dark (1986), 1969 (1986), Windswept (1985), Working for Pleasure (1984), Wide Boy Awake (1984), Catalan (1984), Barcelona Man (1984), What Presence (1984), The Dream Machine (1984), Oxford Medley Show (1984), Imagining October (1984), Tenderness in a Weakness (1984), Touch the Radio, Dance! (1983), Dance with Me (1983), Home Movie Dong (1983) (unfinished), Willow Weep for Me (1983), Dance Hall Days (1983), Rakes Progress (1982), Pontormo and Punks at Santa Croce (1982), B2 Movie (1982), Waiting for Waiting for Godot (1982), Pirate Tape (1982), Diese Machine ist Mein Antihumanistisches Kunstwerk (1982), T G Psychic Rally in Heaven (1981), Broken English: Three Songs by Marianne Faithfull (1979), Every Woman for Herself and All for Art (1978), The Fountain (1978), The Pantheon (1978), Italian Street Scene Italian Ruins (1978) Jordan’s Dance (1977), JubileeMasks (1977), Art and the Pose (or: Arty the Pose) (1977), The Sex Pistols in Concert (1976), Ulla’s Fete (or: Ulla’s Chandelier) (1976), Houston Texas (1976), The Sea of Storms (1976), Corfe Film (or: Troubadour Film) (1975), Ken Hicks (1975), Sebastiane Wrap (or: Sebastiane Mirror Film) (1975), Gerald’s Film (1975), Karl at Home (1975), Sloane Square (or: Removal Party) (1974), In the Shadow of the Sun (1974), Fred Ashton Fashion (1974), Bill Gibbs Show (1974), Duggie Fields at Home (1974), Picnic at Rae’s (1974), Herbert in NYC (1974), New York City (1974), Dinner and Diner (1974), The Devils at the Elgin (1974), Fire Island (1974), My Very Beautiful Movie (1974), The Kingdom of Outremer (1974), Andrew Logan Kisses the Glitterati (1973), Andrew (1973), Red Movie (1973), Stolen Apples for Karen Blixen (1973), Gerald Plants a Flower (1973), Gerald Takes a Photo (1973), Tarot (1973) A Garden in Luxor (1973), Kevin Whitney (1973), The Art of Mirrors (or: Burning of Pyramids) (1973), Beyond the Valley of the Garden of Luxor Revisited (1973), Death Dance (1973), Arabia (1973), Green Glass Bead Game (1973), Sulphur (1973), Journey to Avebury (1973), Walk on Mon (1973), Shad Thames (1973), Café in Tooley Street (1973), Miss World (1973), The Siren and the Sailor (1972), Miss Gaby (1972), Studio Bankside (1972) Electric Fairy (1971)
Selected theatre
1992
The Maids, dir. Christopher Payton, Edinburgh Festival (design)
Poet of the Anemones, dir. Nicholas Wright, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London (set & costumes)
1991
Waiting for Godot, dir. Les Blair, Queens Theatre, London (design)
1985
Mouth of the Night, Mantis Dance Company at the ICA,
London (design)
1980
The Secret of the Universe, dir. Ian Kellgren, ICA, London (design)
One, London Contemporary Dance Theatre on tour (set & costumes)
1974
Nocturne pas de deux, Palladium Theatre London (set & costumes)
1973
Silver Apples of the Moon, London Festival Ballet at the New Theatre, Oxford (set & costumes)
1968
Throughway, Ballet Rambert at the Jeannetta Cochrane Theatre, London (set &costumes)
Jazz Calendar, Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, London (set & costumes)
Selected publications
2024
DEREK JARMAN, JRP Editions, Geneva, Switzerland
Derek Jarman’s Visionary Arts, Bloomsbury Academic, London, UK
Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman’s House, Thames & Hudson, London, UK
2020
Derek Jarman: My garden’s boundaries are the horizon, Garden Museum Publication, London, UK
Derek Jarman: Protest!, Thames & Hudson, London, UK, contributors include Jon Savage, Olivia Laing, Charlie Porter, Norman Rosenthal
2013 Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks, Thames & Hudson,
London, UK
2000
Smiling In Slow Motion: Diaries, 1991 – 94, Vintage Books, London, UK
1996
Up in The Air: collected films scripts, Vintage Books, London, UK
The Last of England (republished as Kicking the Pricks), Vintage Books, London, UK
1995
Derek Jarman’s Garden, Thames & Hudson, London, UK
1994
Chroma, Vintage Books, London, UK
1993
Blue: Text of a film by Derek Jarman, Channel 4 Television & BBC Radio 3, London, UK
1993
Wittgenstein: The Terry Eagleton Script, The Derek
Jarman Film, BFI Publishing, London, UK
1992
At Your Own Risk: A Saint’s Testament, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, USA
1991
Modern Nature: The Journals of Derek Jarman, Vintage Books, London, UK
Queer Edward II, BFI Publishing, London, UK
1989
War Requiem, Faber & Faber, London, UK
1987
The Last of England, Constable, London, UK
1986
Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio, Thames & Hudson, London, UK
1984
Dancing Ledge, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, USA
1972
A Finger in the Fishes Mouth, Bettiscombe Press, Dorset, UK