Milton’s epic Paradise Lost is the inspiration for a series of works by artist Tom de Freston, on display at Cambridge University Library until 5 June 2011.
 

The Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the University of Cambridge, de Freston is based at Christ’s College and works on visual responses to Paradise Lost, first published by Milton in 1667 in ten books with more than ten thousand individual lines of verse.

Tom said: “The paintings inspired by Paradise Lost look to develop and continue notions which have existed in my work for the past few years. The fall has been a recurring motif in my paintings for the past four years, and is central to much of the narrative and metaphorical content of Paradise Lost”.

Jaya Savige, a PhD candidate in English and Gates Scholar at Christ's College, Cambridge, describes de Freston’s rebel angels as ‘condemned, like those figures of divine retribution, Prometheus or Sisyphus, to endure their abysmal lot in perpetuity; or like those “beasts that repeat themselves” that so terrify Auden in In Praise of Limestone.’

Meanwhile, Easter Sunday will see the unveiling of the altar piece paintings Tom has made for Christ’s College Chapel. Two of the large-scale studies for this project, Veiled Melancholy, are included in the University Library display.

The exhibition also marks the official launch of an academic journal Tom has built, with the help and support of numerous Cambridge academics, to discuss the existence of Tragedy in painting. www.tomdefreston.co.uk/tragedy.

Tom will be giving a public lecture on his work and its connection to ‘Tragic Themes’ in the Morison Room, Cambridge University Library, on Wednesday, February 23, at 5pm.

For more details visit http://www.tomdefreston.co.uk/

 

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