THE ART OF MURDER: REPRESENTATION AND CRIME IN LATE VICTORIAN BRITAIN

Was the artist WR Sickert also Jack the Ripper as alleged in Patricia Cornwell’s book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed? Research commissioned by The Tate has unearthed evidence both for and against this theory and raises questions about Sickert’s interest in crime.

This symposium at The Auditorium, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1, 10.30am-6pm, will explore these questions and the relationship between representation and reality in written and visual accounts of the period. It will begin with the historical and cultural context and continue with an examination of descriptions of murder and prostitution in contemporary literature and the press and an analysis of the Ripper myth in criminology, fiction and film. Special attention will be given to Sickert’s Camden Town Murder paintings and press reports of the Ripper murders. Speakers include Christopher Frayling, Royal College of Art, and historian Fiona McCarthy.

Tickets: pound;25, pound;20 Tel: 020 7887 8888Email: ticketing@tate.org.uk www.tate.org.ukbritaineventseducationartofmurder.htm