Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was an English artist, film maker, stage designer, diarist, author and gardener. He was educated at the King's College London and at the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1967 Jarman exhibited his paintings in Young Contemporaries, Tate Gallery, London; the Lisson Gallery, London and Fifth Biennale des Jeunes Artistes, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.
Jarman worked as a set designer on Jazz Calendar, The Royal Ballet, London (1968); Don Giovanni, ENO, London Coliseum (1968) Ken Russell’s feature film The Devils (1971) and Savage Messiah (1972); The Rake’s Progress, Maggio Musicale, Firenze (1982) among others.
In the early 70s Jarman began an extensive series of film works made Super 8mm followed by his first full-length feature film Sebastiane in 1975. He then went on to make a further ten feature films including Jubilee (1978); The Angelic Conversation (1985); Caravaggio (1986); The Garden (1990) and Edward II (1991). His final film Blue was first shown at the Biennale Arte, Venice in 1993.
His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in London, at the Sarah Bradley Gallery (1978); at the Edward Totah Gallery (1982); and at the ICA (1984); in Manchester, at the Whitworth Art Gallery (1994); and in New York, for "X Initiative. Phase I" (2009); as well as publications, by Richard Salmon Ltd in London (1987); and in Derek Jarman. Super 8, by Julia Stoschek, published in Düsseldorf (2010).
Jarman also wrote several books, including the autobiographical Dancing Ledge (1984) and two volumes of memoirs, Modern Nature (1992) and At Your Own Risk (1992). Derek Jarman’s Garden, which documents the creation of his extraordinary garden at Dungeness, was published in 1995.
