Anna Freeman Bentley – make believe

Anna Freeman Bentley’s paintings use architectural imagery to explore the emotive potential of space. Grounded in an interest in the baroque her source material includes junk shops, restaurants, private members clubs, flea markets, and designed interiors. Central to her work is an investigation into surface, tension, and the atmosphere evoked by these different interior surroundings. The spaces she depicts are empty, yet visual signifiers point to evidence of people and social happenings.

This, Freeman Bentley’s third publication to date, is centered on the relationship between painting and cinema and is divided into sections dedicated to major paintings on canvas and panel, and a number of works on paper (all works 2021–22). Freeman Bentley’s work here is focused on sets from "The Colour Room" (2021), a movie that tells the story of the early career of celebrated British ceramicist Clarice Cliff (1899–1972).

The foreword to the book is written by Rollo Campbell and Matt Incledon of Frestonian Gallery. An essay by writer and critic Thomas Marks draws out the importance to her work of historic and contemporary cinema and temporary architecture. Marks notes a change in palette in these new paintings, with Freeman Bentley embracing pastels and tracing parallels between the artist herself and Cliff. An interview with Georgie Paget, co-founder of Caspian Films, production company for "The Colour Room", meanwhile, provides insight into the artist’s particular interest in the artifice of film props and of the movie set as a layered space "steeped in meaning, purpose, and potential." The two discuss the reciprocity of painting and cinema in detail, recounting Freeman Bentley’s experiences on the movie’s sets and discussing her working processes, beginning with taking photographs on set, through to oil sketches and the later development of large-scale canvases.

The publication is edited by Matt Incledon and Matt Price. It is designed by Joe Gilmore, printed and bound by Gomer, Wales, and co-published by Frestonian Gallery, London, and Anomie Publishing, London. The publication coincides with the second solo show by Anna Freeman Bentley at Frestonian Gallery, by whom the artist is represented. The exhibition, also titled "make believe" is divided between two sites: the 2022 Armory Show, New York, and Frestonian Gallery, London.