Cynthia Pell
Cynthia Pell was known for her expressionist portraits and documentary sketches of hospital life. Winner of a national art competition during her final year at school, Pell proceeded to study at Bournemouth Art College and Camberwell Art College in the 1950s. She had her first solo exhibition at the Beaux Gallery in London (1957), burning any unsold work on the pavement outside afterwards. In 1961, Pell was admitted to St Bernards Hospital, Southall, where she was a patient on-and-off over the following decade. Adverse reactions to treatments administered at St Bernards (including psychoanalysis and drugs) led to admission at Bexley Hospital in the 1970s. Time with art therapist Britta von Zweigbergk at Bexley presented the opportunity for her to draw self-portraits and scenes on the ward. Following her death, a group of friends and family, including Paula Rego, organised a memorial show at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham (July/September 1999), followed by another retrospective at the Boundary Gallery (November/December 2000). The latter exhibition was triggered by a discovery that von Zweigbergk had a collection of 122 drawings by Pell from her time at the institution.
Selected Collections
Bethlem Museum of the Mind, London
Further Reading
Dower, Natalie, and Evelyn Williams. Cynthia Pell, 1933–1977. Cynthia Pell Account, 1999.
Dower, Natalie, Paula Rego, and Evelyn Williams. Cynthia Pell, 1933–1977: The Bexley Hospital drawings Cynthia Pell Account, 2000.
