Madge Gill
from The Essay Hosted by BBC Radio 3
Unconventionality is a quality celebrated in art, and no-one demonstrates it better than Madge Gill. Psychologist Prof Victoria Tischler explores this mesmerising artist's work. Her embroidered calicos, some 40 metres in length are full of elegant black lines filling every space of the fabric, in patterns that appear to form a winding staircase and chequerboard tiles, similar to those that would have been fashionable in the Victorian and Edwardian times in which she lived. The fact that Gill became an artist at all was unconventional enough. Born out of wedlock in the working class east end of London, she was sent to Canada aged nine as part of a child labour scheme. It was just one of the many tragedies and hardships to befall her in her life, yet her artistic output is testimony to her efforts not to be defined by them.
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