‘My flat in Bloomsbury is also my studio. I have lived here since 1982. During that time, I have accumulated very little furniture and the rooms of my flat are almost bare. I think my chair paintings are self-portraits. I have two identical chairs: one is in my studio – my models sit on it – and this one, the one that I paint, is in the room where I sleep.’

About the artist

Born in 1959 in Trivandrum, India, Celia Paul lives and works in London. Major solo exhibitions include Celia Paul, curated by Hilton Als, at Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut (2018) touring to The Huntington, San Marino, California (2019), Desdemona for Celia by Hilton, Gallery Met, New York (2015–16); Gwen John and Celia Paul: Painters in Parallel, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (2012–13); The Grave’s Art Gallery, Sheffield (2005) and Abbot Hall, Kendal (2004). She has participated in institutional group exhibitions including All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life at Tate Britain (2018); NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2015-2016); Recent acquisitions: Arcimboldo to Kitaj, British Museum, London (2013); The School of London: Bacon to Bevan, Musée Maillol, Paris (1998) and British Figurative Painting of the 20th Century, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1992).

Her work is in collections including Abbot Hall, Kendal; British Museum, London; Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Frissiras Museum, Athens; Herzog Ulrich Gallery, Brunswick, Germany; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Morgan Library and Museum, New York; National Portrait Gallery, London; New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; Ruth Borchard Collection; Saatchi Collection, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut.

In 2019, the artist’s memoir Self Portrait, praised by notable critics including Zadie Smith in the New York Review of Books, was published by Jonathan Cape; in 2020, the book was published in the US by New York Review Books. Self Portrait by Celia Paul will be published in paperback by Jonathan Cape on 7 April 2022. 2019 also marked the release of a documentary film Celia Paul: private view about the artist by Jake Auerbach.

Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul is published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 7 April 2022 and in the US by New York Review Books on 26 April 2022.