It is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.

But did you know that TS Eliot worked on his poem, The Waste Land, sitting in a shelter on Margate sands?

The part Kent’s coastal landscape played in his creation is celebrated in the town where it happened from this weekend with Turner Contemporary’s latest major exhibition, Journeys with The Waste Land.

Exploring TS Eliot’s 1922 poem The Waste Land through the visual arts, it will feature more than 60 artists, and almost 100 objects, and explore how contemporary and historical art can enable us to reflect on the poem’s shifting flow of diverse voices, references, characters and places.

It was in 1921 that Eliot spent a few weeks in Margate at a crucial moment in his career.

He arrived in a fragile state, both physically and mentally, and worked on it, sitting in the Nayland Rock Shelter on Margate sands.

He wrote to a friend: “I have done a rough draft of part of Part III but do not know whether it will do... I have done this while sitting in a shelter on the front –as I am out allday except when taking rest.” (Letter, 1921 –22, © Estate of TS Eliot).

Writing shortly after the First World War, the world beyond Eliot was also fragile. But out of this, a new generation of writers, artists and musicians emerged.

Eliot’s poem quickly became seen as one of the most important works of the century and its techniques and images continue to be significant.

The new exhibition includes the works by artists alongside historic pieces, contemporary works and new commissions.

Artworks range from Edward Hopper’s painting Night Windows(1928) which echoes the mood of the poem, to responses by international artists, such as this year’s winner of Norway’s national award for contemporary art, Vibeke Tandberg, whose installation The Waste Land (2007) breaks down and re-orders the poem.

There will also be new works specially commissioned, such as John Newling’s sculpture Eliot’s Notebooks (2017), a nine-month project to transform hundreds of copies of The Waste Land into soil, and then back into paper.

THE EXHIBITION

Journeys with The Waste Land is the culmination of a three year project designed to develop a pioneering approach to curating.

Local residents, coming together as The Waste Land Research Group, have developed the entire exhibition. Key was getting to know the poem, and discussing between them personal connections between art, poetry and life. But what is so special about The Waste Land?

Eliot’s masterpiece is a long, complex poem about the psychological and cultural crisis that came with the loss of moral and cultural identity after the First World War. When it was first published in 1922, it was considered radically experimental.

One of the exhibition’s researchers, Judy Dermott, said: “The splintering of language and of sound and of vision – initially so bizarre – has become so mainstream, so seminal, we no longer perceive it as being anything but normal. But remember that every time you send a text message, use Twitter or Snapchat, listen to grime or rap or hip hop, use collage in either literary or artistic form, every time you watch a film using montage, flashback, you are working and perceiving in direct descent from the modernists. And that part of this revolution occurred here, in Margate.”

Fellow researcher Trish Scott, said: “I don’t see this exhibition as being about poetry or art history. Many of the artworks have been chosen for very personal reasons, and, for me, that’s what constitutes the unique richness of this show. It’s about how we – in all our different ways – connect to ideas, as much as what those connections actually are.”

DETAILS

Journeys with The Waste Land runs at Turner Contemporary from Saturday, February 3, to Monday, May 7. The Margate gallery is open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm (and to 6pm in the spring and summer).Admission to the gallery is free and can be found at Rendezvous, Margate, CT91HG.

The exhibition is accompanied by a range of related events, many of which have grown from the Research Group’s activities, from walking and reading to projects around the town of Margate. For more details go to turnercontemporary.org or call 01843 233000.