Duncan Grant: Worlds Through Desire — From Drawing to Cruising to DMs

At the heart of the exhibition are intimate drawings and paintings by Duncan Grant, who in 1916 worked on a Suffolk farm with his then partner David Garnett to escape the war. At a time when same-sex relationships were illegal in Britain, he created deeply personal drawings — often inspired by Greek and Roman art — that reflected his fluid relationships and were gifted to friends as expressions of care and affection. As visitors move through, they discover how LGBT+ people have found one another across places and generations, from galleries and bars to cruising grounds, life-drawing groups, online games and dating apps. Presented as an immersive visual poem, the show combines over 35 of Grant's drawings and paintings — including never-before-shown studies that inspired major works such as Bathing and Venus and Adonis — with contemporary works by Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Jean Claracq, David Lock, Matthew Ansell and anonymous East Anglian artists, newly commissioned poetry and personal reflections.