Ithell Colquhoun’s Nanjizal Stalactite

The song of the Sea archway at Nanjizal Beach with Colquhoun’s narrow painting Stalactite (1962).

It wasn’t until I visited the Ithell Colquhoun exhibition for the second time at the Tate Gallery in St Ives that I recognised a painting of hers as Nanjizal Beach, which I’d only recently been to for the first time. It’s a lovely, desolate beach, completely empty when we went; partly because it was winter, mostly because there’s no car park there – it’s only accessible by the coastal path.

Its famous Song of the Sea is a large arch with a tall, thin slit. The water beneath it is a beautiful turquoise and crystal clear – even on a dull winter’s day. Colquhoun’s slim painting of the scene contains clitoris- and penis-shaped elements to emphasise the sexual forms found in nature.

• Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds, continues at the Tate, St Ives, until May this year.

Previously on Barnflakes
Notes on Ithell Colquhoun