20th century british art
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20th century british art Autumn 2015 Paisnel Gallery 9 Bury Street, St James's, London sw1y 6ab telephone: 020 7930 9293 email: info@paisnelgallery.co.uk website: www.paisnelgallery.co.uk
Index of Artists and Catalogue Numbers Barns-Graham, Wilhelmina Bradley, Martin Bratby, John Chapman, Max Clough, Prunella Copnall, John Davie, Alan Erskine, Robert Forrester, John Francis, Mark Fraser, Donald Hamilton Frost, Terry Gear, William Guthrie, Kathleen Hodgkin, Howard King, Peter Kinley, Peter Mitchell, Denis Mount, Paul Pasmore, Victor Piper, John Steel, George Hammond Stevens, Norman Tower, James Underwood, Leon Wilson, Frank Avray Wynter, Bryan
18 8 12 14 3, 21 17 10 30 13 24 5, 6 23 7, 9 16 22 26 1 27 28 20 4 2 19 29 25 11 15
paintings
cat 1
Peter Kinley (1926–1988) Vertical Landscape, Yellow and Red oil on card 16½ x 10¼ ins (42 x 26 cms)
signed with artist's monogram dated 1953 and titled label verso
Provenance Gimpel Fils 1953 Collection of Peter Cochrane England & Co Private Collection, London, 2011–2015
exhibited Nottingham, Midland Regional Gallery, Six Young Painters, 4–25 May 1957, cat no 12 Arts Council touring exhibition until 12 October 1957 to: Newport, Newport Art Gallery Hull, Ferens Art Gallery Airdie, Airdie Public Library Bradford, Cartwright Memorial Hall Cheltenham, Cheltenham Art Gallery
Kinley had just finished studies at St Martin's when he produced this evocative and impastoed painting, a foretaste of his first solo exhibition at Gimpel Fils in the same year.
cat 2
George Hammond Steel (1900–1960) Cadgwith
oil on card 8 x 10 ins (20.5 x 25.5 cms) signed titled verso painted circa 1954
provenance Private Collection circa 2005–2015
Although fundamentally decorative, this painting does reflect the stylised influences of Hammond Steel's Cornish contemporaries. Dry surfaces, scraped and re-applied, bring to mind John Wells and Paul Feiler. Cadgwith is one of the most southerly hamlets on the Lizard Peninsula, where John Tunnard was based as a coastguard throughout World War II.
Cat 3
Prunella Clough (1919–1999) Landscape with Orange Sign oil on canvas 20 x 16 ins (51 x 41 cms)
signed dated 1958 and titled label verso
Provenance Private Collection, Wiltshire, 2007–2015
Clough’s use of the colour orange projects out from the canvas against the multiple layers of brown and grey. Her interest in portraying abstracted objects, usually associated with industry, outweighed her interest in depicting the human figure. Yet the view on manufacturing here was not meant to be perceived as jubilatory, instead marking the decline of the factories and a lost, heroic past.
Cat 4
John Piper L.G. (1903–1992) Portholland, Cornwall watercolour, bodycolour and ink 15½ x 22½ ins (39 x 57 cms)
signed titled label verso painted circa 1955
Provenance Private Collection 2009–2015
Piper was a constant traveller and his paintings form an invaluable archive of towns and landscapes throughout the British Isles. Portholland consists of two hamlets on the eastern coast of the Cornish peninsular. The informal depiction of its limited buildings is highly typical of Piper’s plein-air work.
Cat 5
Donald Hamilton Fraser (1929–2009) Blue Landscape oil on paper laid on board 10½ x 8¼ ins (27 x 21 cms) signed painted circa 1955
Provenance Private Collection 2008–2015
Hamilton Fraser rarely worked en plein-air and instead developed ideas from memory. Beaches and mountains from his visits to Scotland and Lindisfarne were popular choices of subject matter, although his intentions lay in capturing an embodiment of the landscape rather than evoking a geographical reference. Consequently, deciphering the exact location of his paintings can be difficult.
Cat 6
Donald Hamilton Fraser (1929–2009) Coastal Landscape oil on paper laid on board 9 x 5¾ ins (23 x 15 cms) signed painted circa 1955
Provenance Private Collection circa 2008–2015
Nicholas de Stäel’s exhibition in 1952 acted as an important landmark in Hamilton Fraser’s artistic career. De Stäel’s vibrant use of blocked colour and simplified abstracted form were two consistent elements that remained prominent in Hamilton Fraser’s landscape paintings.
Cat 7
William Gear (1915–1997) Structure Element oil on canvas 20 x 24 ins (51 x 61 cms)
signed and dated '56 also dated Jan '56 and titled verso
The radical changes that occured in Gear's paintings in the 1950s clearly illustrate his intention to move toward making sculpture. Painted in 1956 after Gear had left London to find seclusion in rural Kent, Structure Element reflects this transition from intensely coloured abstraction toward more refined and tonal composition with an emphasis on surface texture and sculptural balance.
Cat 8
Martin Bradley (born 1931) Shaman oil on board 35¾ x 15½ ins (91 x 39.5 cms)
signed and dated '57 titled verso
Provenance England & Co Private Collection 2006–2014
Bradley fuses reality with the magical in this work, the ethereal figure of the Shaman evoking eastern influences and otherworldly perception. The harmonious, layered composition of chalky white and powder blue symbolises both the earthbound and heavenly nature of spiritual balance.
Cat 9
William Gear (1915–1997) December Landscape oil on canvas 40 x 28 ins (102 x 71 cms)
signed and dated '59 also signed, dated Dec '59 and titled verso
December Landscape was painted in 1959, two years after Gear's inclusion in the exhibition, Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract, held at the Redfern Gallery in 1957. This exhibition put Gear’s painterly abstraction in context amongst the other exhibitors, who included Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron, Sandra Blow, Adrian Heath and Gillian Ayres.
Cat 10
Alan Davie (1920–2014) My Next Sold will be in Blue oil and resin on paper laid on board 16½ x 21 ins (42 x 53.5 cms)
signed and dated '59 titled label verso
Provenance Gimpels Fils 1960 Purchased by Mr & Mrs J Milnes-Smith Private Collection 2007–2015
exhibited London, Gimpel Fils, March 1960, cat no 19
The title My Next Sold will be in Blue is particularly appropriate for this painting. Throughout the mid-1950s and early 1960s, Davie revelled in using varying shades of this colour background in a significant number of works. Objects and symbols float on the surface in joyous expression.
Cat 11
Frank Avray Wilson (1914–2009) Prototype oil on canvas 40 x 30 ins (102 x 76 cms)
signed, dated '59 and titled verso
Provenance Redfern Gallery Private Collection, Hampshire, 1996–2007 Private Collection, London, 2007–2015
Cosmological analogies flourished in abstract painting from the 1950s and Avray Wilson's images were frequently explosive in their arrangement. Prototype is arguably the foremost example of this craft with its lines of force and sense of generated energy projecting from the canvas.
cat 12
John Bratby (1928–1992) Lilium Auratum, Regale and Rubellum oil on canvas 39½ x 30 ins (100 x 76 cms)
signed, dated '61 and titled
Provenance The Furneaux Gallery, London Private Collection to 2011 Private Collection, London, 2011–2015
More ‘Kitchen Sink' in its overt realism than the Sunflower series that was soon to follow, the delicacy and subtle colour animate an otherwise static subject. Devoid of pretty flowers in a decorative interior, Lilium Auratum, Regale and Rubellum, painted in a harsh brick conservatory, are in varying stages of decay.
cat 13
John Forrester (1922–2002) Mark Black Two oil on canvas 36¼ x 28¾ ins (92 x 73 cms)
signed, dated 1961 and titled verso
Provenance Private Collection circa 2009–2015
Exhibited Paris, Galerie du Fleuve, Forrester Paintings, May 1962, cat no 6 in assocation with McRoberts & Tunnard, London
For Forrester the word painting was suggestive of intention: he referred to his paintings as ‘marks’ to give expression to the translation of skill and forethought into communication. These marks are often immensely more profound than the emotive ‘action paintings’ of the period and represented a bold stride forward into the new ideas of the 1960s. Redolent of graffiti and urban architecture, Forrester’s works recorded his own personal emotions in a language that was current and relevant to his contemporaries.
Cat 14
Max Chapman (1911–1999) Composition
oil and emulsion on canvas 48 x 36 ins (122 x 91.5 cms) signed label verso painted circa 1962
provenance Purchased directly from the artist in 1991 Corporate Collection circa 1999–2008 Private Collection 2008–2015
Chapman’s Composition is a painting that speaks of artistic experimentation and exploration. Distinct from many of his works, the piece is multidimensional in terms of its form, reminiscent of rays of light which refract onto one another. An interplay between obscurity and clarity of vision is achieved through his unique application of oil and emulsion.
Cat 15
Bryan Wynter (1915–1975) Guitar II gouache and collage 22 x 14 ins (56 x 35.5 cms)
dated 1964 and titled label verso
Provenance Jonathan Clark Fine Art Private Collection circa 2007–2015
In 1964 Wynter moved to Treverven, one of the largest houses in West Penwith, Cornwall, where the additional space provided ample room for him to work more frequently and spontaneously. It is unusual for a work by Wynter from the 1960s to exhibit figurative references: here the distinct outline of a guitar is submerged in a shifting field of hot colour. There is a noticeable correlation to the Sandspoor series of the previous year.
Cat 16
Kathleen Guthrie (1905–1981) Ambience oil on canvas 58½ x 84¼ ins (149 x 214 cms) signed painted in 1966
Provenance The Artist's Estate Liss Fine Art
Painted in the year of Guthrie's solo show at the Drian Galleries in 1966, this is one of the largest pieces in her oeuvre. The work's interlocking composition appears to draw influence from the abstract painting of Cecil Stephenson, her husband, whilst also conveying a sensitive approach to light and colour.
Cat 17
John Copnall (1928–2007) White Painting 1967 mixed media and collage on board 35½ x 23½ ins (90 x 60 cms) signed and dated 1967 verso
Provenance Private Collection 2009–2014
White Painting continues the theme of multitextured surfaces originally explored by Copnall in Spain, without the intense earthy colours associated with his Mediterranean experience. The use of hessian, canvas and plaster reflects the influence of Antoni Tàpies.
Cat 18
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912–2004) Garden oil on paper laid on board 8 x 6 ins (20.5 x 15 cms)
signed and dated 1970 titled label verso
Provenance Private Collection circa 1970–2007
The jewel-like Garden was painted at Barn-Graham's studio and family home, Balmungo House, in St. Andrews. The carefully applied squares of paint are reminiscent of the geometric abstracts she produced in the 1960s. The choice of riotous colour and the title, however, more than imply a referential content in parallel with Patrick Heron's abstracted studies of his garden at Eagles Nest.
Cat 19
Norman Stevens (1937–1988) Louvre Blinds acrylic on canvas 72 x 60 ins (183 x 152.5 cms) signed and dated '71
Provenance Maltzahn Gallery, London
Stevens was renowned for his technical ability as a printmaker and painter. His meticulous style is conveyed in Louvre Blinds through the use of perfectly graduating crisp lines and a sharp, balanced composition. At a glance, the pastel pink and grey construction is reminiscent of Optical art, but closer inspection reveals the piece as depicting venetian blinds; an archetypal subject for Stevens. The interplay between revealing and concealing potential space evokes a sense of intrigue around the work. The Maltzahn Gallery, where Louvre Blinds was shown, was highly influential in promoting the works of artists such as Elizabeth Frink, Richard Hamilton and Stevens’ fellow student, David Hockney.
Cat 20
Victor Pasmore (1908–1998) Untitled 1980 oil, acrylic and charcoal on canvas 17 x 59 ins (43 x 150 cms) signed with initials
Provenance Private Collection 2005–2012
exhibited London, Osborne Samuel, Nine Abstract Artists, 10 March – 9 April 2005, cat no 35
Painted in the same year as Pasmore's Arts Council retrospective exhibition, this iconic work combines abstraction with references to natural forms. From his early figurative works through constructivist associations and later abstracts, Pasmore was an artist widely appreciated by an international audience, as well as an influential teacher and innovative theoretician.
Cat 21
Prunella Clough (1919–1999) Monument 2 chalk on paper 29 x 23 ins (73.5 x 58.5 cms)
signed dated 1981 and titled label verso
Provenance Annely Juda Fine Art, London circa 1992 Private Collection 1992–2015
Clough’s work retained a figurative foundation just as it became increasingly abstract throughout her life. Whilst the introduction, in the 1960s, of dominant squares and rectangles brought gravity and presence to Clough’s compositions, the simplified form and title of Monument 2, and its candle of light, speak of memories and life.
Cat 22
Howard Hodgkin ( born 1932) Put Out More Flags hand coloured etching with aquatint 17 x 21 ins (43 x 53.5 cms)
signed with artist's initials and dated '92 number 55 from an edition of 75
literature Liesbeth Heenk and Nan Rosenthal, 2006, Howard Hodgkin: The Complete Prints, A Catalogue RaisonnĂŠ, Thames and Hudson, cat no 90
The complex and fluid layering of transparent and opaque marks is distinctive of Howard Hodgkin's intricate and richly evocative style. His works often involve an extensive layering process, whilst appearing both vibrant and spontaneous, earning the artist a deserved reputation as a master printmaker.
Cat 23
Terry Frost (1915–2003) Spiral acrylic on canvas 25 x 25 ins (63.5 x 63.5 cms)
dated '96 verso titled label verso
Provenance Acquired directly from the Artist's Estate Belgrave Gallery, London Private Collection 2005–2012
Frost’s later work including Spiral shows a refined simplicity and a reduction to primary colours. He returned to painting a motif that was not only one of the earliest in his own works, but one of the fundamentals of visual culture. As Frost approached his eightieth birthday his painting became ever more celebratory and symbolic with a more elementary pictorial language.
Cat 24
Mark Francis (born 1962) Untitled graphite and charcoal on paper 18Âź x 15 ins (46.5 x 38 cms) signed and dated 2001 verso artist ref 10502
provenance Kerlin Gallery, Dublin Private Collection to 2014
Mark Francis is interested in making the invisible visible, and in magnifying microscopic biological imagery he creates works which combine artistic and scientific discourses. The layering of meandering lines, punctuated with dots over blurred and indistinct backdrops, emphasise the sense that the works explore something both elusive and transitory.
sculpture
Cat 25
Leon Underwood (1890–1975) Water Rhythm – Variation bronze 9 x 16½ ins (23 x 42 cms)
signed and dated '63 a unique variation from the Water Rhythm series edition of 7
exhibited London, Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition 1966, cat no 1465
literature Royal Academy Exhibitors 1905-1970, Volume VI, page 179 Christopher Neve, introduction John Rothenstein, Leon Underwood, page 198 Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture of Leon Underwood, page 136, ill. figure 62, page 83
Leon Underwood was as persistent in his ambition to capture rhythm and movement in his sculpture as he was in developing new techniques for casting bronze. His experimentation gave him the freedom to remodel each work at any time throughout the process. This variation of Water Rhythm is the exceptional result of adaptation and addition: the swimmer’s body, once streamlined and flowing, is now adorned with strings of bronze to simulate water.
Cat 26
Peter King (1928–1957) After the Flood bronze on wood plinth 6 x 14½ ins (15 x 37 cms)
titled 'For After the Flood' on base first cast from an unnumbered edition
provenance New Vision Centre, 1964 Mrs Harry N Abrams Private Collection New York to 2010
In tune with his primitive and surrealist interests King worked in a spontaneous, uninhibited and improvisory way. After the Flood employs a recurring theme, the depiction of boats, to produce a whimsical and mysterious sculpture.
Cat 27
Denis Mitchell (1912–1993) Endoc bronze on slate base 14¼ ins (36 cms)
signed with initials, dated 1977 and titled on base number 3 from an edition of 7
provenance Private Collection, Cornwall (the late Breon O'Casey)
exhibited Bath, Festival Gallery, Denis Mitchell Sculptures 1950–1978, April 1978, cat no 43 (another cast)
Encouraged by Ben Nicholson to sculpt in bronze, Mitchell’s Endoc is a distinctively dynamic example of his work. The balanced form is indicative of his sensitive skill in creating a purity of line and finish, whilst the incised circular details add a mechanical aesthetic.
Cat 28
Paul Mount (1922–2009) Nimrod stainless steel 6 x 7 ins (15 x 18 cms)
signed conceived in 1981
literature Ronald Gaskell, Paul Mount Sculpture: A Retrospective Selection, Nancherrow Studio, 1981, illustrated plate 57 (another cast)
Mount produced a series of squat and weighty casts during the 1980s, in steel, iron and bronze. Some, such as The Controller, display strong associations with the human form whilst others, such as Nimrod, remain resolutely abstract. The highly polished steel exudes power and energy.
Cat 29
James Tower (1919–1988) Currents
earthenware with green & white tin-glaze 12½ x 23 ins (35 x 58.5 cms) incised with signature and dated '84
Literature Timothy Wilcox, The Ceramic Art of James Tower, Lund Humphries, 2012, cat 127, illustrated page 153
Tower's ceramics frequently draw inspiration from the essence of landscape and from the natural world. Rocks, clouds and rivers course through his work. Currents, by virtue of its complex patterned glaze, likely references flowing water and tide. The shape of the earthenware is equally suggestive of a butterfly wing.
Cat 30
Robert Erskine (Born 1954) Compression wrought bronze on slate base 13 x 11 ins (33 x 28cms) signed & dated 2005 unique
Provenance Private Collection 2009–2015
Robert Erskine is widely known for large public sculptures and commissions. Whilst Compression is the study for a large-scale project, it has both the presence and emotive power of a monumental piece.
20th century british art Published in 2015 by Paisnel Gallery
isbn 978-0-9931746-2-9 Paisnel Gallery 9 Bury Street St James’s London sw1y 6ab
Telephone: 020 7930 9293 Email: info@paisnelgallery.co.uk www.paisnelgallery.co.uk © Paisnel Gallery All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without first seeking the written permission of the copyright holders and of the publisher. Photography: Paul Tucker Photography Design: Alan Ward @ www.axisgraphicdesign.co.uk Print: Albe De Coker, Antwerp
Preceeding page: Bryan Wynter, Guitar II cat 15 (painting) and Robert Erskine, Compression cat 30 (sculpture)
Front endpaper: John Forrester, Mark Black Two cat 13 (painting) and Denis Mitchell, Endoc cat 27 (sculpture)
Back endpaper: William Gear, Structure Element cat 7 (painting) and Leon Underwood, Water Rhythm – Variation cat 25 (sculpture) Cover: James Tower, Currents (detail) cat 29
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