Chrissie Gutsell: Cyane

Cyane is an exhibition of eight abstract paintings by the Cambridgeshire-based artist Chrissie Gutsell, made in response to Lucy M. Boston's poem 'The fount of Cyane, Syracuse / A Revolt Against Gothic'.

In Greek myth, the nymph Cyane sees Hades seize her friend Persephone and drag her down to the Underworld. Cyane tries to intervene, and as punishment is turned into a pool of water, confined there for ever. Boston's poem reimagines the story. It opens in a sombre mood of isolation and silence after the struggle, then gradually lightens as the poet urges Cyane to free herself, until at last she flows out to the sea. Gutsell follows these changing moods through colour, texture and mark-making, taking the poem as a metaphor for her own, often emotional, artistic journey as she wrestles with ideas and materials.

The paintings hang among the everyday furnishings of the house, alongside works and objects chosen from the Trust's collection: Lucy M. Boston's books; works by Alan Reynolds and Swietlan Kraczyna that explore different ways of representing myth; works by Gillian Recordon and Eloise Dethier-Eaton that evoke water; and works by members of the Keate family, Daisy Goodchild, Mary Goodchild and Leonara Keate, that suggest containment and release.

The Keate Family Arts Trust holds a collection of mid to late twentieth-century prints, ceramics and other works in the Cambridge house of its late founder. Four or five times a year it invites an artist to research the collection and curate an exhibition setting their own work against pieces chosen from it.