The Redfern Gallery presents My Dance with Picasso, the first exhibition of Lydia Corbett / Sylvette David's work at the gallery, bringing together paintings, drawings, and sculpture of an extraordinary artistic career. Long recognised for its highly selective programme and enduring commitment to artists of exceptional quality, The Redfern Gallery is proud to celebrate Corbett's remarkable creative legacy.
Born in Paris in 1934, Sylvette David (also known as Lydia Corbett) spent her childhood between Provence and the Île du Levant, a small Mediterranean island off the Côte d'Azur. Raised by her mother, the painter Honor Gell, she developed an intuitive relationship with drawing from an early age. Immersed in the brilliant light, sea and landscape of southern France, these formative experiences established a lifelong visual language rooted in memory, nature, and a profound sense of place. In the spring of 1954, while living in Vallauris in the South of France, the nineteen-year-old Corbett met Pablo Picasso.