Where Ideas Are Born

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the only thing you needed was to be in a safe place that made you feel at home to free your mind and let your creativity flow? In fact, various studies confirm that creativity kicks in much better when we are in an environment that stimulates us and where we feel secure. A place where creativity takes shapes and ideas born is such a precious nests for artists, an important space to feel able to let the creativity truly flow through.

Image on left, Andy Warhol New York, USA 1964. Eve Arnold-Magnum

“A place where one ‘works well’ is like a bright spot on the map of the world, the place where experience becomes form.” Emanuele Trevi.

Compton Verney’s latest exhibition aims to highlight these important working spaces for creatives. Places, where some of the most famous names can be seen in their studios or even just images of the works are presented. This new body of work is created in conjunction with Magnum Agency.

The Magnum Agency

Magnum Photos was created two years after the devastation that was the Second World War. Four photographers – Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and David “Chim” Seymour – founded the world’s most prestigious photographic agency after being deeply scarred by the conflict and driven by a sense of relief that the world had somehow survived as well as curiosity to see what was still there. They founded Magnum in 1947 to express their independence as people and photographers.

Since the 1940s, Magnum Photos has photographed most of the world’s biggest events and individuals, covering society, politics, events and war.

Compton Verney and the Exhibition

Compton Verney House is an 18th-century country estate in Warwickshire, England, near Kineton. The building is a Grade I listed house built in 1714 by Richard Verney, however in 1993 it was bought in a run-down state by the Peter Moores Foundation, a charity supporting music and the visual arts and was restored to a gallery capable of hosting international exhibitions. The house is set within q120 acres of countryside.

It is here that we can find more than 20 photographers from world-renowned artists of the 20th century. The new show Magnum Photos: where ideas are born is its latest exhibition.

Such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, Francis Bacon, Al Weixei, Salvador Dali, Tracey Emin, Louise Bourgeois, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusuma May, Roy Litchnestein and Henry Roe may all be seen in their creative environments in a series of revealing and unique photos.

Frida Kahlo, Mexico 1957, left. Andy Warhol. 1964 New York right. Magnum Photo.

On this occasion, showing around 80 photo portraits of painters that shaped art history in the last century will be on display. From the intimate tiny workshops of the Parisian avant-garde painters at the turn of the century, through the New York lofts of American pop and minimal artists, to the highly professional studios of the worldwide stars of the contemporary art market, they can all be seen in their creative habitats.

The photographs provide a rare insight: they show both the creative chaos of Francis Bacon’s painting table and the neatly arranged statues on Frida Kahlo’s shelves. They are the result of an attempt to capture the moment when the spark of the artistic life is ignited.