British artist Catherine Goodman CBE is preparing to transform the magnificent Boughton House in Northamptonshire into a canvas for contemporary artistic expression. “Catherine Goodman. In the House of Tapestries” will bridge centuries of artistic tradition with bold modern vision.
Running from 1 August to 2 September 2026, this extraordinary exhibition will display over 11 new works, including a monumental triptych painting, two large-scale tapestries, smaller abstract pieces, and an intimate series of pastel studies. The presentation centers on Boughton’s striking 17th-century Unfinished Wing, with works flowing throughout the neighboring historic interiors to create an unprecedented dialogue between contemporary practice and centuries-old craftsmanship.
A Journey Through Time and Textile
Courtesy of Boughton House. Photo: Tony Marsh / Boughton House.
Goodman’s fascination with Boughton House has developed over several years of repeated visits, during which she has absorbed the atmosphere, accumulated memory, and visual language of one of Britain’s most significant stately homes. Her particular focus has been the house’s extraordinary historic collection, which includes pieces from “The Acts of the Apostles” series, created at the Mortlake Works during Charles I’s reign from cartoons by Raphael.
The artist became especially captivated by what she describes as the vivid preservation of color in Boughton’s historic textiles, something that resonates deeply with her own painterly intensity. Many of these textile masterpieces have retained their extraordinary brilliance due to their careful preservation within the house over centuries, creating an almost supernatural vibrancy that speaks across time.
“The exhibition is titled In the House of Tapestries because the tapestries at Boughton always had such a profound impact on me,” Goodman explains. “As you move through the house, you catch glimpses of them through doorways and corridors, and they begin to feel almost alive within the rooms. I became interested in the idea of ‘clothing’ a room, where colour and narrative seem to wrap themselves around the architecture. The tapestries felt like a natural progression of my interest in immersive spaces and pushing painting beyond the canvas, allowing the work to expand into space itself.”
The Marriage of Traditional Craft and Contemporary Vision
Courtesy of Boughton House. Photo: Sarah Vivienne / Boughton House.
For the first time in her career, Goodman has expanded her painterly practice into woven form, collaborating with the renowned Stephens Studio in South Africa. This partnership marks a significant evolution in her artistic journey, translating her expressive visual language into textile form with remarkable sophistication.
The Stephens Studio, celebrated for its collaborations with artists including William Kentridge, brings generations of expertise to this ambitious project. Based just outside Johannesburg, the studio creates handwoven textiles through the skilled hands of nearly 30 women, using raw mohair from South Africa’s thriving angora industry that is hand-spun and hand-dyed in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
This meticulous process involves translating Goodman’s original designs into full-scale cartoons, which are then placed behind looms where teams of up to five weavers carefully interpret and amplify each image into woven form. The result is a collection of textile works that capture the tumultuous brushstrokes, swirling colors, and dense applications of pigment that characterize Goodman’s paintings.
Intimacy Meets Grandeur
Interior view of the Unfinished Wing at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, UK © Tony Marsh
What particularly fascinated Goodman about Boughton House was the striking contrast between intimacy and grandeur within its interiors. Domestic rooms unexpectedly contain monumental textiles and decorative schemes of extraordinary scale, creating a unique spatial dynamic that the artist has sought to capture and reinterpret in her new works.
Through her extensive visits, Goodman came to know Boughton’s interiors with remarkable intimacy, returning repeatedly to draw within the Great Hall and study fragments of imagery glimpsed through doorways and corridors. These observations , horse legs, folds of fabric, rich colors, and narrative scenes emerging unexpectedly throughout the house , form the foundation of her artistic response.
Her semi-abstract pastel drawings, created while working directly within Boughton, serve as the starting point for the new body of paintings and woven works. These pieces translate her expressive visual language into architectural space, reflecting her longstanding interest in immersive environments and painting as something that can extend beyond traditional physical boundaries.
An Architectural Symphony of Color and Movement
Goodman’s works animate and reframe Boughton’s surrounding architecture through color, texture, and movement. Drawing from her longstanding fascination with immersive environments , from Russian Orthodox interiors and candlelit gold iconography to Giotto’s fresco cycles, Japanese screens, and modern cinema , the exhibition approaches textiles not as contained objects, but as part of a broader spatial and architectural experience.
Water, gardens, and the surrounding landscape of the Boughton estate recur throughout the exhibition, merging with figures, architectural motifs, and fragments of textile work to create layered compositions suspended between memory, observation, and imagination. This approach transforms the viewing experience into something closer to walking through a three-dimensional painting.
The tumultuous brushstrokes, swirling colors, and delicate lines that characterize Goodman’s work move beyond canvas and into architectural space, creating an environment where contemporary artistic vision enhances rather than competes with historic grandeur. This approach to contemporary art exhibitions in historic houses demonstrates how modern practice can illuminate and celebrate artistic heritage.
A Legacy of Artistic Excellence
Catherine Goodman‘s artistic journey spans decades of distinguished achievement. Born in London in 1961, she studied at Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts and the Royal Academy Schools, where she won the Royal Academy Gold Medal in 1987. Her commitment extends far beyond personal artistic practice, embodying a profound dedication to social justice through education.
In 2000, Goodman co-founded The Royal Drawing School with HM King Charles III, delivering subsidized and free education to thousands of young and disadvantaged people across the UK. She continues in her role as Founding Artistic Director and Academic Board Member, whilst also organizing drawing classes for individuals dealing with homelessness and disabilities, and offering refuge classes to young people experiencing mental health challenges.
Her personal commitment to care extends to her role as primary caregiver to her sister Sophie, who was born with multiple health conditions and has been a continuing subject of Goodman’s practice. This dedication to both art and service was recognized in 2024 when she was awarded a Commander of the Order of British Empire (CBE) for services to art.
Since 2019, Goodman has served as Artist Trustee at The National Gallery, London, and her paintings are held in significant private and public collections internationally.
The Perfect Setting: Boughton House
Boughton House provides the perfect backdrop for this ambitious exhibition. Home to the Duke of Buccleuch, the house displays a significant portion of the internationally renowned Buccleuch Collection, one of the world’s most important privately held art collections. The house contains paintings by masters including Carracci, El Greco, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Murillo, Le Sueur, and Van Dyck, alongside historically significant furniture, porcelain, textiles, and arms.
The 17th-century-designed landscape has been carefully restored over several years and includes a canalized river, formal ponds, and long stretches of open water. These were inspired by the gardens and waterworks encountered by the first Duke of Montagu during his time at the Court of Versailles. Designed as a grand Baroque landscape, the grounds remain among the most significant surviving historic landscapes in Britain.
Richard Buccleuch offers his perspective on Goodman’s relationship with the house: “Catherine’s affinity and sensitivity to Boughton have grown ever deeper over the years. Her reflections on it in this new exhibition are magical. For all that it appears a house subtle and at peace, she has teased out vivid colours and hidden energy that one recognises as having always been there. Her perception from the 21st century connects, with miraculous harmony, with five centuries of artistry and craftsmanship, while all the time refreshing and challenging both eye and spirit.”
Contemporary Relevance and Future Vision
The exhibition arrives at a moment of renewed international interest in textiles as a medium, coinciding with the Bayeux presentation at the British Museum in September 2026. This timing underscores the continuing relevance and power of textile art to capture contemporary imagination while honoring traditional craftsmanship.
Goodman’s exploration of “clothing” architectural spaces with color and narrative offers a fresh perspective on how contemporary art can inhabit and improve historic environments. Rather than creating tension between old and new, her approach suggests harmonious coexistence and mutual enrichment.
The exhibition represents a significant evolution in Goodman’s practice, demonstrating how contemporary artists can engage with historical spaces and traditions in ways that honor the past while pushing artistic boundaries into new territories. Her works create layered compositions that exist between memory, observation, and imagination, offering viewers an experience that transcends traditional exhibition viewing. This follows in the tradition of other high-profile exhibitions, such as the Catherine the Great’s Jewels & Fabergé Treasures at Sotheby’s.
Following the Boughton exhibition, Goodman will display a solo exhibition of new works at Hauser & Wirth’s Limmatstrasse location in Zurich, opening in September 2026, continuing the artistic journey begun in Northamptonshire’s historic halls.
“Catherine Goodman. In the House of Tapestries” promises to be more than an exhibition , it represents a masterful fusion of contemporary artistic vision with centuries of artistic tradition, creating something entirely new while honoring the profound legacy of both textile art and historic architecture. This ambitious presentation positions Goodman at the forefront of contemporary artists engaging with historical contexts, demonstrating how modern practice can illuminate and celebrate our artistic heritage.
