Berenice Sydney

Berenice Sydney (1944–1983), born Berenice Frieze, and professionally known as 'Berenice', was a British artist who produced a substantial body of work from 1964 onwards. Her oeuvre consists of paintings on canvas and paper, drawings, prints, children's books, costume design and performance. A memorial exhibition of her work was held at the Royal Academy in 1984 followed by solo shows in Italy, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Switzerland and Britain. Her work continues to be featured in print and watercolour shows held in Burlington House. Her work is in over 100 private and public collections.

Biography Berenice Sydney was born in Esher, Surrey in 1944 and educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in London. From her early years, she studied ballet with Marie Rambert and classical guitar with Adele Kramer. As an adult, she balanced her studio work with training at the Dance Centre in the Royal Opera House and attending flamenco dance studios in Hampstead and New York City. Berenice was married to the Italian photographer Romano Cagnoni from 1970 until they divorced in February 1983.

In addition to reading the classics and studying mythology, she was fluent in five languages. She was enrolled at the Central School of Art and Design but left formal art education to set up a studio in Chelsea.

She participated in over 40 exhibitions before her death of an asthma attack at the age of 39. She is buried in the eastern section of Highgate Cemetery. Her father, the documentary filmmaker Joseph Sydney Frieze, died a few months later and is buried with her. Lord McAlpine gave the eulogy at her funeral which was also attended by Dr. David Brown then the Assistant Keeper in Modern Collections at the Tate Gallery.

Career Berenice Sydney was included in ten group exhibitions between 1963 and 1975 and held eleven solo shows, in addition to being invited to represent Britain at the Biennale della Grafica d'Arte in Florence in 1974. The following year she showed her "stained-glass effect" canvases at the McAlpine Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum.

Her first professional exhibition was held at the Drian Galleries in 1968 and included Susanna and the Elders with Charlie the Pigeon, Coffee Pot and 3 Yellow Flowers and The Drummer Boy.

She began to exhibit her works on paper including Dancing Nymphs, Hermaphroditus, Pan and Two Nymphs, The Marriage of Psyche and Eros, Naiads Surprised by Satyrs, in 1968. Linocuts were also exhibited that year and included Aphrodite and Ares, Nymphs Dancing, Psyche and Eros, Nude Fiddling with Toe, Pan and Two Nymphs and Hebe and Artemis. She continued to explore themes relating to Persian mythology, Christian symbolism and Greek mythological subjects as well as referencing Ancient Egyptian art, creating a hieroglyph of her professional name and working on papyrus.

Responding to the exhibition Salute to Berenice Sydney held at the Royal Academy Max Wykes-Joyce wrote:

Children's books Sydney wrote and illustrated a Book of Nonsense Verse 1982/3 later titled Book of Fools which she dedicated to the First of April. A page from this work featuring the poem The Ant who Danced and Pranced is featured in the catalogue to the exhibition Homage to Berenice Sydney. In it the art historian, Florian Rodari's appraisal of Sydney's work appears in French with a translation in English by Charlotte Frieze. The black and white illustrations to the Book of Fools are aquatints etched in a delicately delineated style. The text is written in French and English. Four artist's proofs of the book subsequently titled Book of Fools were printed. The French version of A Book of Fools was purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale Paris in October 1982 in addition to a number of the artist's earliest etchings, now kept in the Cabinet des Estampes. An audio cassette recording of the artist giving a reading of the Book of Fools was made at the Musée d'Elysée in Lausanne as the artist performed with castanets, accompanied by Gypsy Flamenco musicians and rendered in parts with a Yorkshire accent in homage to her father's family origins.

Exhibitions Exhibitions during her lifetime 1968–1982

1968 Drian Galleries, First One Person Show, London Leicester Galleries, - Group Show, London Edinburgh Festival Costume Designs for Workshops Production of Clown - Televised, Grampian Productions Magdelene Street Gallery. Group Show, Cambridge 1969 Traverse Theatre Gallery, Group Show, Edinburgh Lumley Cazalet Gallery, Group Show, London Camden Arts Centre Group Show, London Tib Lane Gallery, Group Show, Manchester Royal Institute Galleries, Group Show F.I.B.A., London WI 1971 International Student House, One Person Show, London Leicester Galleries. Group Show, London WI Richard Demarco Gallery, Group Show, Edinburgh Tib Lane Gallery, Group Show, Manchester 1972 Galleria Stellaria One Person Show, Florence Zella 9 Gallery, Group Show, London Art in Steel Exhibition, Group Show, Millbank, London F.B.A. Galleries, Group Show, London SWI Magdelene Gallery, Group Show, Cambridge 1973 Christopher Drake Gallery, Group Show, London Kenwood House Museum, Two Person Show, London, mounted by the Greater London Council Bear Lane Gallery, One Person Show, Oxford Van Dyke Gallery. One Person Show, Bristol University Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Group Show, Paris Artists from Five Continents" Group Show, Swiss Cottage Central Library 1974 Education Gallery, One Person Show, Leeds City Art Gallery Willis Museum and Art Gallery. One Person Show, Basingstoke Biennale della Grafica d'Arte, Florence, Italy representing Great Britain Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, One Person Show 1975 McAlpine Gallery, One Person Show, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford County Museum, One Person Show, Warwick Museum and Art Gallery. Three Person Show, Leicester Galleria d'Arte, One Person Show, Milan St Catherine's College, Oxford One Person Show, Oxford Trinity College, Oxford. One Person Show Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. Prints 1976 Biennale Européan de la gravure, Group Show, Mulhouse Galeria Peters, Group Show, Buenos Aires Gallery of Modern Art, Two Person Show, Buenos Aires Cardiff University, One Person Show, Cardiff Leeds Art Gallery, Series of 6 lectures and demonstrations of etching techniques 1982 The Society of Graphic Artists Hampstead Artists Council Free Painters and Sculptors Chelsea Art Society

Posthumous exhibitions 1984 onward

1984 Salute to Berenice Royal Academy. One Person Show, London Exhibition of British Art, Abu Dhabi Group Show Exhibition of British Art, Gulf of Bahrain, Group Show British Council Paris, Group Show Centenary Exhibition, Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Group Show 1985 Homage à Berenice Sydney, Edwin Engelberts Galerie d'Art Contemporain, One Person Show, Geneva 1986 Christmas Exhibition' Lumley Cazalet Fine Art, Group Show, London 1987 Berenice Sydney, Gallery of British Contemporary Art, One Person Show, Lausanne 1988 Berenice Sydney, La Galerie Michel Foex, Geneva, Watercolour painting, One Person Show 1989 Women in Art, Bowmoore Gallery, Group Show, London 1990 Contemporary British Artists, Waterman Fine Art, Group Show, London 1991 The London Original Print Fair, Royal Academy of Art, London Represented by Lumley Cazalet From Fautrier to Rainer, La Galerie Michel Foex, Group Show, Geneva, including Henri Michaux, Brice Marden, Ben Nicholson, Jean Fautrier 1992 Homage to the British Artist Berenice Sydney, Galerie Nelly L'Epattenier, One Person Show, Lausanne 1993 Homage à Berenice, L'Exemplaire, Geneva, One Person Show The London Original Print Fair, The Royal Academy of Art, Represented by Peter Black 1994 Berenice Sydney, L'Exemplaire, Geneva, One Person Show 1995 Art'95 Contemporary British Art Fair, London Milan, Book Print Fair Group The Chelsea Art Society Group Exhibition A private exhibition of rare and original European prints 18th-20th century at Austin Desmonds, Campbell Fine Art Magnat Gallery, London 1996 L'Exemplaire, Geneva, One person show 1998 Girls, Girls, Girls, Deborah Bates Gallery, London 2002 Group show, La Galerie Michel Foex, Geneva, including Ben Nicholson, Rachel Whiteread 2006 Watercolours and Drawings Fair, James Kinmont Fine Art and John Iddon Fine Art, Royal Academy, London Chelsea Art Fair, John Iddon Fine Art, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London Exhibition 9 paintings from the Orbit series, Modern British Artists, London 2008 Watercolours and Drawings Fair, Modern Works on Paper, James Kinmont Fine Art, Royal Academy, London Chelsea Art Fair, John Iddon Fine Art, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London 2010 20/21 British Art Fair, John Iddon Fine Art, Royal College of Art, London

Public collections

Museums and galleries The British Museum, London The Victoria and Albert Museum, London The Tate Gallery, London The British Council, London The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam The Royal Library of Belgium Brussels The Uffizi Gallery, Florence Galleria M. Arte Moderna, Bologna The Phillips Collection, Washington The National Library of Congress, Washington The Smithsonian Institution, Washington Philadelphia Museum of Art Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Menil Collection, Houston, Texas Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, USA Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Capital Nacional de la Nautica, Buenos Aires Graphische Sammlung der ETH, Zürich, Switzerland New York Public Library New York, USA Jenisch Collection, Musée Cantonale, Vevey, Switzerland Victoria Art Gallery, Bath City Art Gallery, Bradford Museum and Art Gallery, Bolton Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Bedford Museum County Museum, Derby Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne City Art Gallerv, Glasgow Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne Leicester City Gallery Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool City Museum & Art Gallery, Newport Reading College & School of Arts and Design now Thames Valley University Luton Museum & Art Gallery, Luton South London Gallery Museum of Reading Newnham City Collection City Art Gallery, Wakefield Humberside Education Services Humberside Leisure Services Batley Library Rochdale Libraries Art Services Museum & Art Gallery, Rochdale Durham County Council Norwich Castle Museum Nonsuch High School Cecil Higgins Gallery, Bedford Museum and Art Gallery, Oldham Usher Gallery, Lincoln Portsmouth City Art Gallery

Public and university collections University of Sussex University of Manchester Cardiff University University of Bristol University of Bath University of Glasgow University of Cardiff University of Lancaster University of Sheffield University of Salford Bristol Education Authority Leeds Education Department Reading Education Department Derbyshire County Council Inner London Education Department (ILEA) Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust St Thomas' Hospital, London St Mary's Hospital, London Bingley & Havering County Council London Borough of Bromley Education Office, Preston Lancashire County Council Nottingham Education Committee

Corporate and commercial collections James Walter Thompson London First National Bank of Boston Chase Manhattan Bank Stellaria Galleria, Florence Pallas Gallery Lumley Cazalet Gallery Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford Drian Galleries, London Butler Miller Wilkin Warburton World Graphics Hilton Hotels

Private collections John Jacobs, Curator of Historic Museums and Director of the Iveagh Bequest Kenwood House London Galeria Peters, Buenos Aires, Argentina Private Collections, San Francisco, California, USA Private Collection, Washington D.C., USA Private Collection, Los Angeles, California, USA Private Collection, New York City, USA Private Collection, Geneva, Switzerland Patrick Cramer, Geneva, Switzerland Michel Foex, Geneva, Switzerland Darius Dabatabay, Geneva, Switzerland Lady Noel Annesly, England Christopher Johnston Collection, England Mr. and Mrs. Hariton Embiricos, Greece Sueo Mitsuma, Tokyo Lord Alistair McAlpine, England Linda Talbot, England 4 Private Collections, Sydney, Australia