Wollen, Roger (Introduction) : Derek Jarman: A Portrait

The power of Derek Jarman's visual imagination has touched every one of his projects. In the various roles of painter, stage designer, film-maker and gardener, his intensity forged a compelling view of the world in many different media. However, it was as a painter that he was trained, graduating from the Slade School of Art in the 1960s to almost immediate acclaim, and exhibiting widely both in London and abroad. His career as a film-maker never entirely exposed his importance as an artist. The book studies a selection of Jarman's work in a variety of visual media. The text explores the interconnecting aspects of Jarman's oeuvre, including the relationshp between the painting and the films, the stage designs, the late paintings and the garden - revealing common themes, ideas and influences to provide insight into Jarman's creative mind.