Exhibitions at University of Leeds celebrating the life work and legacy of artist and academic Judith Tucker

The life and legacy of the late artist and academic Judith Tucker is being celebrated in two exhibitions currently running at the University of Leeds. Tucker, who died in a traffic accident in November last year at the age of 63, was a senior lecturer in the University’s School of Design and was a talented painter with a rich and diverse practice rooted in landscape, ecology and memory.
Judith Tucker Viper's Bugloss from Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes, Lincolnshire (2023, unfinished, part of the Verges collection) © The Estate of Judith Tucker.Judith Tucker Viper's Bugloss from Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes, Lincolnshire (2023, unfinished, part of the Verges collection) © The Estate of Judith Tucker.
Judith Tucker Viper's Bugloss from Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes, Lincolnshire (2023, unfinished, part of the Verges collection) © The Estate of Judith Tucker.

She was also an inspiring teacher and a huge supporter of other artists. It is fitting that one of the exhibitions is taking place in the Space @ Design in the Clothworkers Central Building, a gallery that Tucker helped to establish to showcase student work. “The work in the exhibition shines with colour and light, two of the outstanding features of Judith’s painting,” says Dr Helen Clarke, lecturer in the School of Design who curated the show. “The gallery itself is a tribute to her passion, energy and generosity in supporting creative practice. A commemorative plaque was unveiled recently to mark that and the space is now dedicated to Judith’s memory. It has been such a privilege and an honour working on the show. The idea was to present work from different periods in Judith’s career and her various research interests. We chose some of the recent works of plants that fitted with her interest in ecology and then other works that go further back as far as 2004.”

Tucker’s partner the poet and academic Harriet Tarlo is pleased with the result. “It is almost a mini-retrospective and it really shows the breadth of Judith’s ability,” she says. “It is brilliantly done.” The couple frequently worked together, most notably in recent years exploring the Humberston ‘Fitties’ plotland on the Lincolnshire coast and at the time of Tucker’s death they were collaborating on their latest project the ‘Verges’ series exploring the plants, sand dunes, empty plots and gardens of the area. “One of the paintings Judith was working for that project is being shown for the first time,” says Tarlo. “I have been living with that painting for the last year down in her studio but seeing it in the gallery space is amazing. Her paintings of the plants were really quite special, I just wish she had had more time to do more of them.”

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That final painting, Viper's Bugloss from Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes, Lincolnshire (2023, unfinished), is the centrepiece of the exhibition. Other works on display include, four artists books made in collaboration with Tarlo, paintings from her final collection Dark Marsh depicting the flora of Tetney Marsh and watercolour sketchbooks from an early series entitled ‘Resort’ in which Tucker explored her Jewish heritage, the intergenerational trauma of her mother and grandmother’s flight from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the loss of other family members in the Holocaust.

Judith Tucker Night Fitties 'Hideaway temporary bungalow' (2022) Oil on linen 30 x 40cm © The Estate of Judith TuckerJudith Tucker Night Fitties 'Hideaway temporary bungalow' (2022) Oil on linen 30 x 40cm © The Estate of Judith Tucker
Judith Tucker Night Fitties 'Hideaway temporary bungalow' (2022) Oil on linen 30 x 40cm © The Estate of Judith Tucker

“The unveiling of the commemorative plaque at the Space @ Design gallery was a wonderful event,” says Tarlo. “There were about a hundred people there; all of Judith’s colleagues and many of the Phd students she taught over the years. They all spoke incredibly warmly of her as an educator. She was a very inspiring, warm and generous person. I have heard from so many people – Judith taught in schools too before she became an academic – who have told me she inspired them and how they became artists and art teachers because of her. So, she did an awful lot in her 63 years.”

Another lasting legacy is the establishment of the Judith Tucker Memorial Prize; the first two prizes will also be awarded at the opening of the Contemporary British Painting exhibition at Persistence Works in Sheffield on Saturday. Selected by art historian Griselda Pollock, Harriet Tarlo and Turner Prize-winning artist Lubaina Himid, prizes of £3,000 and £1,500 will be awarded to a woman artist based in the UK whose practice explores the relationship between memory, place, environment and landscape through contemporary painting.

The University Art Collection has also acquired seven of Tucker’s works, six of which are now on display in the University’s Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery including Why Destroy a Thing of Beauty?, from her Night Fitties series, which won a Jackson’s Art Prize in 2020. “Judith was endlessly enthusiastic and supportive of our work at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, involving her students and bringing artists and researchers to visit regularly,” says University of Leeds art curator Layla Bloom. “She guest-curated exhibitions at the gallery, most recently Arcadia for All in 2023. It has been a bittersweet task to share these recently acquired works with our audiences. They are so vivid and full of love for both humanity and the environment.”

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Judith Tucker’s work is on display at the Space @ Design in the Clothworkers Central Building and at the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds. Both exhibitions run until December 13.

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