Swimming Art - Anita Klein

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Anita Klein, Swimming in the Rain (2020)

The artist and printmaker Anita Klein has been painting swimmers for a while, but Covid lockdown has prompted her to create and bring together a whole body of swim-themed work - the subject of her exhibition 'Water' at Eames Fine Art Gallery (Bermondsey Street, London SE1) which we visited last week. There are swims in pools, in lakes, in the rain, in Italy, in Lake Windermere, and in London's Royal Docks which like many other swimmers this year Anita took to for the first time when so many other swimming spaces in London were closed.

As Anita told 'Outdoor Swimmer' magazine (October 2020):  'Before lockdown I was definitely more of a pool swimmer, but I missed swimming so much, then I discovered the London Royal Docks and I realised it was possible to swim again.…Swimming at the Dock has been really beautiful. Have you ever noticed the reflections of the buildings? There are these buildings that are vertically straight in different colours on the water and their reflections are absolutely stunning. I have been completely distracted from swimming, treading water and just looking at the reflections. It has been such a surprise and lovely that something like lockdown has led to a whole new experience'.


A feature of her work is that the water never looks the same from painting to painting, reflecting her wish to capture the inner experience of being immersed in the water. As she says in the exhibition catalogue:

'Especially in open water swimming, when underwater is darkness, the water surface is an abstract pattern of light, and all you can hear is your own breathing and the splashing water. Thoughts come and go but often the sensory experience is all that fills my head, and time passes with no self-conscious awareness. Modern life gives us so few opportunities to be so truly alone with no external interference'.




The exhibition runs until 1 November 2020, and can be viewed online here

A full colour catalogue is also available:


 

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