Artist and doctor Joseph Dupré’s latest work marries medicine, politics and art in an overt rendering of his double life.
Juggling two careers is increasingly common however it is rare to find someone working in two such specialist and diametrically opposed fields as Joseph Dupré, who spends three days of his week working as a doctor, and two practising as an artist and sculptor. But it’s in the contrast between these two disciplines that Dupré finds a sense of balance. Requiring entirely different ways of thinking, art and medicine are a strangely happy marriage, enabling Dupré to exercise both parts of his brain to the benefit of the other. And increasingly they are finding expression alongside each other in his art.
Although Dupré grew up in an artistic household – his mother is a ceramicist and father is a poet – he was put off art at school due to an uninspiring 6th form art teacher. This led him down an alternative path, and on to studying medicine. During the 13 years of his training, Dupré barely picked up a pencil. Instead he focussed on completing his specialist training, at the end of which he would give himself time to explore his art.
Towards the end of his studies, he took some time out of medicine to do a term at The Royal Drawing School in London, focussing on print-making and observational studies. Here the synergies between his two passions began to emerge – life-drawing and an understanding of anatomy, an ability to really look closely and observe and understand.
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The end of his training coincided with Covid and a two-month spell in which he could focus exclusively on art. A lockdown purchase of a kiln, to share with his partner ceramicist Pollyanna Johnson, led to an exploration of ceramics. The surfaces remain as important as the objects themselves. Often pock-marked, visceral yet playful, the anatomy of his medical life appears alongside the natural world that surrounds his life as an artist in rural Sussex.
His most recent work, made for the Royal Academy summer show, the most explicit portrayal of his two careers to date. ‘Sharp Scratch’ is a pilgrim flask, boasting the NHS logo on one side and a nurse letting blood on the other, with the words “Fund us let us care”.
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A look inside the awe-inspiring home of Joseph Dupré and his partner ceramicist Pollyanna Johnson
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‘A theme that I look for in sculpture is humour and playfulness, something that Picasso masters wonderfully.’
- Joseph Dupré -
