Imagining Islands: Artists and Escape responded to The Courtauld Gallery’s Summer Showcase, Collecting Gauguin: Samuel Courtauld in the ‘20s, and draws on works from The Courtauld Gallery and the Arts Council Collection.

In 1891, the artist Paul Gauguin travelled from Paris to the Pacific island of Tahiti in pursuit of a haven away from Western civilisation. Artists have long been drawn to the elusive ideals and tantalising fantasies that islands embody.

This trans-historical exhibition explores artists’ fascination with other worlds, real and imagined, and the perennial search for utopia, considering the concept of the island in poetic, evocative, and experimental ways.

Imagining Islands was curated by students on the MA course Curating the Art Museum.