| Admin/Biog History | Deanna Sheila Petherbridge (1939-2024) was an artist, writer, curator and educator.
Born Deanna Sheila Schwartz on 11 February 1939, in Pretoria, South Africa, she was the daughter of Harry Schwartz, a solicitor, and Frieda Schwartz (née Goldberg). Both Petherbridge's parents came from Jewish families, although she described her upbringing as secular. Petherbridge's maternal family had emigrated to South Africa from Belorussia, while her paternal family came from Russia. Petherbridge's great-aunt, Pauline Podlashuc, a medical graduate from Russia (modern-day Lithuania), became a prominent figure in the South African suffragette movement where she served as the secretary of the Women's Enfranchisement League in Johannesburg.
Deanna was the third child of four siblings, she had two older two sisters, Claire and Pamela, and one younger brother, Lester. Petherbridge attended Pretoria High School for Girls and, at the age of 16, began studying fine art at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, under Professor Heather Martienssen. Her studies included courses in the history of art, music, and anthropology. As a child she learnt to play the piano and continued to play in music groups throughout her life. After completing her degree, she spent a year teaching in the fine arts department at the university.
Whilst in Johannesburg Petherbridge started a relationship with Gerald Abramovitz (1928-2011), an architect and furniture designer, twenty years her senior. When her parents discovered their relationship, they were forced to marry. Petherbridge was deeply affected by the injustices of the apartheid regime, and she found the political climate in South Africa increasingly untenable. Gerald's assistant, John Mokone, a member of the Pan African Congress, was arrested during the Rivonia Trial and imprisoned. Petherbridge and Gerald played a role in helping Mokone secure his release from prison, but this experience of witnessing firsthand the horrors of Mokone's imprisonment along with witnessing the injustice of the apartheid regime solidified their decision to leave South Africa, a decision which Petherbridge has described feeling a sense of guilt over. In 1960, Petherbridge and Abramovitz emigrated to London.
Petherbridge and Abramovitz travelled to Europe by boat, spending several months visiting countries across North Africa and Europe. During this journey, Petherbridge kept a diary, which was later published (C466/152, Deanna Petherbridge, Artists Lives, British Library). During the course of cataloguing the archive efforts to trace this publication were unfruitful.
Whilst in London, Petherbridge taught art at the Carlyle School for Girls, Chelsea, alongside other jobs to help support Abramovitz; she had been awarded a place to study at the Royal College of Art but was unable to afford the fees. Petherbridge has since described her dislike of London in the swinging sixties, finding it hard to adjust to the cultural shift from the politically charged environment of South Africa to the frivolous, hedonistic, atmosphere of London in the 1960s.
In 1967, Petherbridge left Abramovitz and filed for divorce after a seven-year marriage (c 1960-1967). After leaving Abramovitz, Petherbridge started a relationship with Guy Petherbridge (b. 1944), and in 1967, they moved to his house on the Greek island of Sikinos. Petherbridge was to keep a studio and spend periods of time in Sikinos for the next three decades. This studio was followed, in later life, by another in Umbria, Italy which she bought in the 2000s.
Petherbridge, who had originally used her maiden name Schwartz and then Abramovitz after her first marriage, felt disconnected from both surnames. She initially planned to create her own surname, such as "Disikinos," inspired by the Greek island where she lived. However, when she went to the registry office, Guy suggested adopting his surname, and she did so by deed poll.
While in Sikinos, Petherbridge solidified her artistic style, transitioning to monochromatic pen and ink drawing. In the 1960s, she had worked as a surrealist painter, influenced by Francis Bacon and experimented with soft sculpture and anti-war imagery. Her travels, particularly to places like Djerba during the winter months while living in Sikinos, influenced this shift to pen and ink. During this period, Deanna and Guy travelled extensively, returning to Sikinos in the spring.
Throughout the 1970s Petherbridge began incorporating geometric elements of architecture into her drawings. Throughout her career, she remained committed to drawing, which she viewed as a democratic, accessible form of expression. Her early work, shaped by her travels, focused on geometric patterns from Islamic art and vernacular architecture. Later, Hindu temples and historic sites across India became key inspirations. Over time, her work increasingly explored architectonic themes, as well as themes of war and conflict.
In the early 1970s Guy gained a place at Camberwell's Conservation Institute, which led to their return to the UK. The couple moved to Holmbury St Mary, to live in their friend, the artist David Russell's family cottage on the grounds of his family home, Randor House. During this period Petherbridge began attending weekly lectures on Islamic art and architecture at the Architectural Association and became friends with George Michell, Dalu Jones and others.
In 1973, Petherbridge had her first solo exhibition, Deanna Petherbridge: Drawings, at Angela Flowers Gallery in London (12 Mar-4 Apr 1973). A few years later, she exhibited The Iron Siege of Pavia and Other Drawings at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London (9 Sep-19 Oct 1975). In 1978 she exhibited in the Hayward Annual '78 at the Hayward Gallery in London. She has since described her involvement with this exhibition as the first time in which she identified with a group of other artists, Tess Jaray and Liliane Lijn.
In 1978, her relationship with Guy Petherbridge ended after his affairs. Despite other future relationships, from this point forward she chose to live alone.
Petherbridge described the 1980s as her "golden era," the time when she was most productive and created her best work. In 1982, she held a solo exhibition India: Tombs & Temples at Angela Flowers Gallery, (23 Apr-17 May 1980). This period also saw her first major retrospective, Deanna Petherbridge: Drawings 1968-82, at City Art Galleries, Manchester, (4 Nov-4 Dec 1982), held following her time as an artist in residence at the Gallery. In 1984, Petherbridge participated in a group exhibition titled Geometry of Rage: Denis Masi, Deanna Petherbridge, Michael Sandle, which was first shown at Arnolfini in Bristol (13 Oct-18 Nov 1984) and later at the Third Eye Centre in Glasgow (24 Nov-22 Dec 1984). In 1987, her solo exhibition Temples and Tenements was held at Fischer Fine Art in London, (23 Apr-22 May 1987), followed by a British Council supported tour of India, (Oct 1987- Feb 1988).
Over the course of her career Petherbridge undertook numerous residencies, lecture tours, and academic fellowships across the world, and travelled extensively to places including Australia, India, Pakistan, and the US. She used the visits as inspiration for both her artistic and academic work. Although her practice was primarily drawing-based, she also produced large-scale murals - an example of which is located at Birmingham's International Convention Centre (1991). Petherbridge also designed sets and costumes for the Royal Ballet, A Broken Set of Rules (1984), and Bloodlines (1990), and Royal Ballet, Sadlers Wells, One by Nine (1987). Her commission for the Birmingham Convention Centre, marked a shift in her artistic practice. Her design for the mural was compromised due to planning regulations and the commission evolved into a lawsuit, and she has since described how these events lead her to lose faith in herself as an artist, which lead her to practice much less as an artist in the 1990s, focusing instead on writing, curating and teaching.
Despite this, Petherbridge continued to exhibit her drawings regularly up until 2022, including: Themata exhibited at Fischer Fine Art Limited, London, (17 Jan-18 Feb 1990); Deanna Petherbridge, Retrospective exhibition, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, (2 Dec 2016 - 4 Jun 2017); Places of Change & Destruction, Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London, (6 Sep - 14 Oct 2017); The Destruction of the City of Homs, 2016, displayed in Walk through British Art: 60 Years, Tate Britain, London; and Deanna Petherbridge: Drawing and the Domain of Politics, Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London, (25 Feb- 24 Mar 2022).
As well as being an artist Petherbridge had an extensive academic career, contributing significantly to the teaching and development of art history, with a strong focus on theory of drawing. She lectured at the Architectural Association, Reading University and Middlesex Polytechnic in the 1980s and was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art in 1995. She launched the Centre for Drawing Research; the first doctoral programme focused on drawing in the UK. She was research fellow at both Yale University in 2007 and the Getty Center in Los Angeles between 2001 and 2002.
In recognition of her contributions to drawing, Petherbridge was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996 and was appointed Associate Fellow of the Warburg Institute (2020). She also became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1998. Her academic career continued at the University of the West of England (2002-2006), where she was the Arnolfini Professor of Drawing and later became Emeritus Professor. She also served as a Research Professor at the University of Lincoln (2007-2009) and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Arts London (2009-2012).
Petherbridge began contributing reviews and articles to Architectural Review in 1979 and wrote for numerous journals and newspapers including Architectural Design, Building Design and the Financial Times. She also authored a regular column in Art Monthly commenting on commissioning, sponsorship and the social structures of visual art communities in the UK. She also wrote many exhibition catalogue essays and chapters in books for fellow artists.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Petherbridge was researching and writing the highly influential publication The Primacy of Drawing (2010; rev. edn. 2026), which examines the importance of drawing as significant practice in Western art history from the fifteenth century, as well as its relevance to contemporary artists working with multiple practices. In addition to her work as an artist and writer, Petherbridge also curated numerous exhibitions. Some of her major curatorial contributions include: The Primacy of Drawing: An Artist's View (1991); The Quick and the Dead: Artists and Anatomy (1997); Witches and Wicked Bodies (2013); and Artists at Work, Drawings Gallery, Courtauld Institute (2018).
Petherbridge died at her home in London, on 8 January 2024, at the age of 84.
This biography was written using the following as reference:
-Deanna Petherbridge interviewed by Linda Sandino and Cathy Courtney, Artists' Lives, 2002-18, catalogue reference C466/152
-Griffiths, A. (preface by.) et al. (2016) Deanna Petherbridge : drawing and dialogue. London: Circa.
-Petherbridge, D. and Hobhouse, N. (2022) Drawing as metaphor : Deanna Petherbridge. [Wincanton, Somerset]: Drawing Matter.
-https://deannapetherbridge.com |