Celia Paul (born 11 November 1959) is an Indian-born British painter, best known for her intense, haunting portraits of her close family and herself.[1] Paul lives and works in London, England.
From 1976 to 1981 she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where she met Lucian Freud who was a visiting tutor and with whom she would have a relationship.
Paul was represented by Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London from 1984 to 1986 and then by Marlborough Fine Art, London from 1989 to 2014. She has been represented by Victoria Miro, London since May 2014.[2]
A solo exhibition of new work by the artist titled Celia Paul: Memory and Desire took place at Victoria Miro in London, 6 April–14 May 2022. The exhibition coincided with the publication of Letters to Gwen John, a new book by the artist published by Jonathan Cape and New York Review Books which centres on a series of letters addressed to the painter Gwen John (1876–1939), who has long been a tutelary spirit for Paul.
Celia Paul's paintings are intimate depictions of people and places that she knows well. She does no portrait commissions. Her paintings have a haunting otherworldly feeling. "Throughout all her work the sense of sight is associated with a world of potential, within. This is how a sense of the ineffable is able to be communicated".[5] Paul worked on a series of paintings of her mother from 1977 to 2007 and since then she has concentrated on her four sisters, especially her sister Kate. "…[T]he real strength of Paul's project becomes apparent with time: the concentrated emotional energy of chronicling a family and its subtle shifts over many years".[6] Recently her work has taken a new direction and she has been focusing on landscape and the sea. "[S]he …is a creator of subterranean images. Her canvases are Impressionism in conversation with modernism- objective but felt".[7]
Paul lives and works in her studio which is directly opposite the main gates of the British Museum.[8]
Personal life
From the age of 18 to 28, Paul was in a romantic relationship with Lucian Freud.[8] She has a son with him, Frank Paul (born 10 December 1984), who is also an artist. She was married to Steven Kupfer from 2011 until his death in 2021.
Solo exhibitions
" Celia Paul: Colony of Ghosts", Victoria Miro, London, 14 March - 17 April 2025
"Celia Paul: Memory and Desire", Victoria Miro, London, 6 April – 14 May 2022
"Celia Paul: Self-Portrait", an extended reality (XR) exhibition on Vortic Collect, Victoria Miro, London, UK, 10 November – 12 December 2020
"Celia Paul: My Studio", an extended reality (XR) exhibition on Vortic Collect, Victoria Miro, London, UK, 26 June – 25 July 2020
"Celia Paul", Victoria Miro, London, 13 November – 20 December 2019
"Celia Paul", curated by Hilton Als, Yale Center for British Art, 3 April – 12 August 2018
"The Sea and The Mirror", Victoria Miro Venice, 23 September – 21 December 2017
"Desdemona for Hilton by Celia", Victoria Miro, London, 16 September – 29 October 2016
"Desdemona for Celia by Hilton", Gallery Met, New York, 2015
"Pictus Porrectus: Reconsidering the Full-Length Portrait", curated by Dodie Kazanjian and Alison Gingeras, Isaac Bell House, Newport, Rhode Island, 1 July – 2 October 2022
"Me, Myself, I – Artists’ Self-Portraits", Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, 2 May – 19 June 2022
"Figuration", Marlborough Gallery, London, 17 March – 29 April 2022
"The Sublime in Nature", Daniel Malarkey, London, 16 June – 10 July 2021
"I See You", an extended reality (XR) exhibition on Vortic Collect, Victoria Miro, London, 2 June – 4 July 2020
"Parley for the Oceans x Vortic", online exhibition on Vortic, 2 October – 2 November 2020
"Works on Paper", Galleri Bo Bjerggaard, Copenhagen, 26 January – 6 April 2019
"Unparalleled Journey through Contemporary Art of Past 50 Years", Rubell Museum, Miami, USA, on view since 4 December 2019
"Contemporary Dialogues with Tintoretto", Palazzo Ducale and Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, 20 October 2018 – 24 February 2019
"Studio Prints: a Survey", Marlborough Fine Art, London, 30 November – 21 December 2018
"All Too Human", Tate Britain, 28 February – 26 August 2018; travelling to Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 9 October 2018 – 13 January 2019
"House Work", Victoria Miro Mayfair, London, 1 February – 18 March 2017
"NO MAN'S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection", Rubell Family Collection, Miami, 2015 – 2016
Financial Times Magazine: "Acclaimed artist Celia Paul on painting from life- and loss": 16 March 2018
Farah Nayeri, New York Times: Artist's Muse Steps out of the Shadows: 5 March 2018 and front page of New York Times International 11 March 2018
Sophie Elmhirst, ‘Standing Tall: Celia Paul will always be her own woman’, Harper's Bazaar Art, November 2016 [Cover artwork Anemone, Celia Paul, May 2016]
Laura Cumming, ‘It’s always the quiet ones...’, The New Review [The Observer], 11 September 2016
Jackie Wullschlager, ‘Artist Celia Paul explores the beauty of melancholy’, Financial Times, 2 September 2016
Hilton Als, "Celia at Home", in Celia Paul (London: Victoria Miro, 2014)
Rowan Williams, (introduction) Gwen John and Celia Paul: Painters in Parallel (Chichester: Pallant House Gallery, 2012)
Catherine Lampert, "Eighty Steps", in Celia Paul (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 2011)
Frank Paul, (introductions) Celia Paul (Sheffield: Graves Art Gallery, 2005) and Celia Paul (London: Marlborough Fine Art, 2013)
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