Popularly known as the Painter Laureate of Newark, Adolf Konrad is known for his American Scene paintings of New Jersey. Born in Bremen, Germany, he immigrated to the United States with his family in 1925 during a time of political and economic turbulence. Settling at first in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Konrad enrolled in the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, training primarily under the Russian-born modernist Bernard Gussow (1881–1957). By the early 1930s, Konrad made Newark his home, creating the Cooperative Gallery with fellow students Bernard Rabin and Nathan Kreuger in 1935. Later renamed the Rabin and Kreuger Gallery, it became known as one of the leading American modern and realist art galleries at the time. Konrad served as the president of the Artists Equity Association in New York from 1954 to 1930 and of the New Jersey Art Association from 1958 to 1960. In 1966, the Newark Museum organized a major exhibition of Konrad’s work, confirming his position as a preeminent New Jersey artist. Recognized for his achievements, the National Academy of Design honored him with the Thomas B. Clark Prize in 1956 and the Andrew Carnegie Award in 1967. Konrad became a full academician of the National Academy of Design in 1970. Today his work may be found in the collections of the Newark Museum and the New Jersey State Museum.
The eldest son of Anne Redpath, possibly the most famous Scottish woman painter of the twentieth century, Michie was born in St Omer, France where his father was working as an architect. When the 1930s recession led the family to return to Hawick in Scotland, Michie attended the local high school where he won a scholarship to study architecture at Edinburgh College of Art. War service in the RAF interrupted his studies and he became one of the youngest pilots to receive his wings, serving with distinction as a night-fighter pilot in reconnaissance aircraft over Germany and occupied territory.
Reluctant to return to his architectural studies after the war, Michie worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. He had a successful career as a fashion draughtsman for leading magazines in London, before moving to Dorset in 1950.
A visit to the 1962 Venice Biennale had a dramatic artistic and professional impact. It was there that Michie first encountered the work of the American abstract expressionists: Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline and Mark Rothko. The experience drove him towards painting and particularly abstraction. His new artistic philosophy was confirmed at a meeting with Rothko at an exhibition of paintings by his friend John Plumb at the Axiom gallery in London in the late 1960s.
His first solo exhibition of his new work was held at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre in 1964. These large acrylics, richly coloured and sensuously textured, linked him not only to the American painters he admired, but also to the Edinburgh school of colourists. That same year he also exhibited Gold Relief 21 at the Royal Scottish Academy, and was a finalist in an Arts Council open painting competition. He exhibited widely in Britain and abroad and in 1972 a major show in São Paulo led to the modern art museums of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo purchasing work. His sculpture was shown at the Barbican Centre in London in 1981.
Peter Davies concluded his excellent obituary of Michie in the Independent as an artist who ‘belonged to a generation of later modernist artists who shared an optimistic but never naïve world-view conditioned by an understanding of human nature gained during wartime. A sophisticated, urbane man with a quiet, wry sense of humour, he overcame a strange mix of privilege and disadvantage to pursue a difficult career.’
This small collection of Fashion illustrations were purchased directly from the artist’s family. They cover an exciting period of British fashion from the ascent from post war austerity to the swinging sixties: a fascinating potted timeline plotting the evolution of women’s design from the ‘New Look’ to ‘Hippy Chic’.
A Welsh artist, Janes was born in Swansea where he attended Swansea School of Art and Crafts. Something of a prodigy, he exhibited at the 1928 National Eisteddfod at 16 and three years later was commissioned to paint a portrait of the mayor of Swansea. At 20 he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools where he was taught by Thomas Monnington. He shared a flat for a time with fellow student William Scott. In 1932 he became part of the bohemian Swansea group ‘The Kardomah Gang’ that included the poets Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins and the Composer Daniel Jones. Janes had a close association with Thomas, sharing flats in and around Earls Court, during which time he painted several portraits of the poet. Three portraits are now in Welsh public collections including the well known oil in the National Museum in Cardiff. He taught in Swansea for many years, broken only by war service in Egypt with the Pioneer Corps. In 1963 he moved to London, accepting a post at Croydon College of Art, and from then until his death he lived at Dulwich. Among the younger generation whom he encouraged were Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean.
A Welsh artist, Janes was born in Swansea where he attended Swansea School of Art and Crafts. Something of a prodigy, he exhibited at the 1928 National Eisteddfod at 16 and three years later was commissioned to paint a portrait of the mayor of Swansea. At 20 he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools where he was taught by Thomas Monnington. He shared a flat for a time with fellow student William Scott. In 1932 he became part of the bohemian Swansea group ‘The Kardomah Gang’ that included the poets Dylan Thomas and Vernon Watkins and the Composer Daniel Jones. Janes had a close association with Thomas, sharing flats in and around Earls Court, during which time he painted several portraits of the poet. Three portraits are now in Welsh public collections including the well known oil in the National Museum in Cardiff. He taught in Swansea for many years, broken only by war service in Egypt with the Pioneer Corps. In 1963 he moved to London, accepting a post at Croydon College of Art, and from then until his death he lived at Dulwich. Among the younger generation whom he encouraged were Bridget Riley and Bruce McLean.
Anthony Gross was born in 1905, at Dulwich, London, the son of the Hungarian cartographer who and founder of Geographia Ltd and the Suffragette Bella Crowley. His younger sister was the artist Phyllis Pearsall who was widely credited for inventing the London A to Z maps. He attended Shrewsbury House School and later Repton, enrolling at the Slade in 1923. He continued his studies at the Central School of Art and Crafts in London, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1925 he took life classes and studied as an engraver at the Académie Julian and Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. During the early 1930s he exhibited in Paris galleries, becoming a member of the La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, designed costumes and settings for ballet, and worked with composer Tibor Harsányi. He also married Villeneuve fashion artist Marcelle Marguerite Florenty in 1930.He co-directed the short film La Joie de vivre with Hector Hoppin in 1934 then returned to Britain to work on animated films. He illustrated a 1929 edition of Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles and became an art director for London Films. In 1937 he returned to work in Paris but in 1940 he brought his family to the safety of England, to live at Flamstead in Hertfordshire.Eric Kennington pushed to have Gross appointed as an official war artist and he spent his initial year painting English coastal defences and troop training. In 1941, with a temporary commission of captain, Gross was attached to the 9th Army and painted within the Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Kurdistan, Lebanese, and Mesopotamian theatres of war, sometimes accompanied by other war artists Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden. He later documented the 8th Army’s North African Campaign. From 1943 he transferred to India and Burma to witness the front line battle against the Japanese, producing works that were the subject of a one-man exhibition at the National Gallery when he returned to England.Gross accompanied the D-Day invasion of Northern France, wading ashore near Arromanches at 2pm on D-Day. He sketched the beachhead landings and spent the night in a slit trench on the beach before moving inland the next day. He followed the Allied armies to Paris and then into Germany, witnessing the meeting of American and Russian forces at the River Elbe on 25 April 1945.Following the war, Gross returned to working in London, producing commercial illustrations, including in 1954, the dust jacket design for the first edition of Lord of the Flies. From 1948 to 1954 he was a life drawing tutor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, afterwards becoming Head of Printing at the Slade.From 1948 to 1971 Gross's work was exhibited in London and New York in one-man shows and as part of The London Group. In 1965 he became the first president of the Printmakers Council. He became an honorary member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1979, the same year being elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy. He became a Senior Academician in 1981, and was awarded a CBE in 1982.Public collections holding Gross’s work include the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Imperial War Museum and the Tate Gallery, London, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; the South African National Gallery, Cape Town; the Kunstmuseum, Basel; the National Gallery of Norway, Oslo; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Cabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Louvre and the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.
Anthony Gross was born in 1905, at Dulwich, London, the son of the Hungarian cartographer who and founder of Geographia Ltd and the Suffragette Bella Crowley. His younger sister was the artist Phyllis Pearsall who was widely credited for inventing the London A to Z maps. He attended Shrewsbury House School and later Repton, enrolling at the Slade in 1923. He continued his studies at the Central School of Art and Crafts in London, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid. In 1925 he took life classes and studied as an engraver at the Académie Julian and Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. During the early 1930s he exhibited in Paris galleries, becoming a member of the La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, designed costumes and settings for ballet, and worked with composer Tibor Harsányi. He also married Villeneuve fashion artist Marcelle Marguerite Florenty in 1930.He co-directed the short film La Joie de vivre with Hector Hoppin in 1934 then returned to Britain to work on animated films. He illustrated a 1929 edition of Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles and became an art director for London Films. In 1937 he returned to work in Paris but in 1940 he brought his family to the safety of England, to live at Flamstead in Hertfordshire.Eric Kennington pushed to have Gross appointed as an official war artist and he spent his initial year painting English coastal defences and troop training. In 1941, with a temporary commission of captain, Gross was attached to the 9th Army and painted within the Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian, Kurdistan, Lebanese, and Mesopotamian theatres of war, sometimes accompanied by other war artists Edward Ardizzone and Edward Bawden. He later documented the 8th Army’s North African Campaign. From 1943 he transferred to India and Burma to witness the front line battle against the Japanese, producing works that were the subject of a one-man exhibition at the National Gallery when he returned to England.Gross accompanied the D-Day invasion of Northern France, wading ashore near Arromanches at 2pm on D-Day. He sketched the beachhead landings and spent the night in a slit trench on the beach before moving inland the next day. He followed the Allied armies to Paris and then into Germany, witnessing the meeting of American and Russian forces at the River Elbe on 25 April 1945.Following the war, Gross returned to working in London, producing commercial illustrations, including in 1954, the dust jacket design for the first edition of Lord of the Flies. From 1948 to 1954 he was a life drawing tutor at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, afterwards becoming Head of Printing at the Slade.From 1948 to 1971 Gross's work was exhibited in London and New York in one-man shows and as part of The London Group. In 1965 he became the first president of the Printmakers Council. He became an honorary member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in 1979, the same year being elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy. He became a Senior Academician in 1981, and was awarded a CBE in 1982.Public collections holding Gross’s work include the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Imperial War Museum and the Tate Gallery, London, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; the South African National Gallery, Cape Town; the Kunstmuseum, Basel; the National Gallery of Norway, Oslo; the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Cabinetto Nazionale delle Stampe, Rome; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Louvre and the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA.
Born in Paris Armand grew up in a family of successful artists. His father, Vincent Manago and his older brother, Dominique Manago, were respected artists although their styles were radically different from the young Armand’s. An independent streak led Armand to sign his work with the adopted surname of Guerin to mark him out from his family. He studied at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he was a student of Jean-Pierre Laurens among others. He became a noted figure amongst the French naïve school. His work is simple, spontaneous, unaffected with a childlike simplicity that belies the classical training behind its creation.
Cheek studied at Chelsea School of Art under Raymond Coxon and Ceri Richards from 1945 to 1948 and at the Royal College of Art under Ruskin Spear, Carel Weight, Robert Buhler, John Minton and Francis Bacon from 1948 to 51. From the early 1950’s he exhibited widely notably at the Royal Academy, Redfern Gallery, Leicester Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery, Piccadilly Gallery and at the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition. His work is included in numerous private and public collections, including the Government Art Collection. He lived in West London.
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson ARA (1889-1946)Nevinson studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks and alongside Stanley Spencer and Mark Gertler. When he left the Slade, Nevinson befriended Marinetti, the leader of the Italian Futurists, and the radical writer and artist Wyndham Lewis, who founded the short-lived Rebel Art Centre. However, Nevinson fell out with Lewis and the other 'rebel' artists when he attached their names to the Futurist movement. Lewis immediately founded the Vorticists, an avant garde group of artists and writers from which Nevinson was excluded.
At the outbreak of World War I, Nevinson joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit and was deeply disturbed by his work tending wounded French soldiers. For a very brief period he served as a volunteer ambulance driver before ill health forced his return to Britain. Subsequently, Nevinson volunteered for home service with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He used these experiences as the subject matter for a series of powerful paintings which used the machine aesthetic of Futurism and the influence of Cubism to great effect. His fellow artist Walter Sickert wrote at the time that Nevinson's painting La Mitrailleuse, 'will probably remain the most authoritative and concentrated utterance on the war in the history of painting.' In 1917, Nevinson was appointed an official war artist, but he was no longer finding Modernist styles adequate for describing the horrors of modern war, and he increasingly painted in a more realistic manner. Nevinson's later World War One paintings, based on short visits to the Western Front, lacked the same powerful effect as those earlier works which had helped to make him one of the most famous young artists working in England.
Shortly after the end of the war, Nevinson travelled to the United States of America, where he painted a number of powerful images of New York. However, his boasting and exaggerated claims of his war experiences, together with his depressive and temperamental personality, made him many enemies in both the USA and Britain. In 1920, the critic Charles Lewis Hind wrote of Nevinson that 'It is something, at the age of thirty one, to be among the most discussed, most successful, most promising, most admired and most hated British artists.'
A British painter, designer, and silk-screen printer known for his association with David Bomberg and the Borough Group. Born in Manchester he studied agriculture and Vetinary science at Reaseheath School of Agriculture in Nantwich.In 1944 Holden met David Bomberg at the City Literary Institute in London and a year later he followed Bomberg to Borough Polytechnic where he was teaching. As a result of discussions with Bomberg, Cliff Holden conceived the idea of the Borough Group which was established in 1946. Other founder members of the Group were Edna Mann, Dorothy Mead, and Peter Richmond. Holden was nominated and elected the first President of the Group – at Bomberg’s suggestion - during 1946-48. Bomberg then succeeded to the presidency and the group extended to eleven members. The Borough Group was active for five years until disbanding in 1951, by which time they had organised more than seven exhibitions. The purpose of the Borough Group was to work out the ideas that Bomberg promoted, and provide a platform for furthering those ideas.During the years 1952-62, Cliff Holden contributed articles to: Konstrevy, Paletten, Konstperspektiv, Art News and Review, Studio International. He also gave BBC Radio talks on Bomberg and Swedish art. Holden's memorial tribute to David Bomberg, broadcast on the BBC Third programme in 1958, was described a decade later by the art critic David Sylvester as 'the most useful analysis of Bomberg to have appeared'. For many years, Holden has promoted cultural exchanges between Sweden and England, and he was instrumental in bringing the work of Evert Lundquist to international attention.Holden met the Swedish artist Torsten Renquist who invited him to exhibit in Sweden and from 1956 Holden lived and worked permanently in the country.He founded a design studio together with Lisa Grönwall and Maj Nilsson, which moved to Marstrand in 1959. The trio became internationally known as the Marstrand Designers and received many awards. In 1984 the studio moved to a village near Falkenberg. There Holden additionally established a school of painting and drawing - the Hazelridge School of Painting - Hässlås Målarskola - where Holden continued to paint and also inspired visiting art students.Holden was a member of the London Group, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and the Free Painters and Sculptors. He was also a design associate of the American Institute of Interior Designers. He received an honorary doctorate from London South Bank University in 2006.The collections of the Arts Council, Manchester City Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum include work by Holden.Holden died in April 2020 at the age of 100
Painter, born in Kimberley, South Africa of Welsh parentage. In 1927 he relocated to Manchester and shortly afterwards to Huddersfield. He studied at Huddersfield School of Art, 1938-41 where he studied under Reginald Napier. Following service during World War II in the Royal Navy, Bowen furthered his studies Royal College of Art, 1948-48. He taught at various art colleges in the 1950’s including Kingston School of Art, Hammersmith, Ealing, the RCA and at the Central School of Arts & Crafts. In 1952 he acted as Secretary to Paule Vezelay for Groupe Espace and he was a founder member of the Free Painters & Sculptors originating at the ICA 1953-56. Bowen was an early exhibitor at the Loggia Gallery and also directed the New Vision Centre, London for a decade from 1956 in the 1960’s and around this time he had a transient brush with Op Art and Kinetic Art, where he experimented with relief and with new, optically vibrant, fluorescent or luminous paints.
Between 1969-72 he was appointed an Associate Professor at Victoria University, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. His numerous group and solo exhibition venues include the John Whibley Gallery, New Vision Centre, London, Redfern Gallery, London, Lawrence Adler Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa, Drian Gallery, London, Greater Victoria Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada, Birch and Conran Fine Art, London, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Yorkshire, Examples of his work are in the public collections of many galleries around the world including BM, V&A, CAS, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, Wakefield Art Gallery, Corpus Christie College, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland and at galleries in the USA, Israel and across central Europe. A book and retrospective exhibition held at the Belgrave Gallery, London in 2001, together with the belated acquisition of work by the Tate Gallery, finally fêted his broad, but undervalued, contribution to post-war abstract art in Britain. KHG, Marlborough has also shown his work in their group exhibitions.
Probably the best known of the late twentieth century landscape painters, he was an East Anglian artist by heritage and inclination. Without formal training he took private tuition from Bertram Priestman RA and was encouraged by the local celebrity, Sir Alfred Munnings. Munnings advice and contacts led to a lucrative early career in equestrian portraiture. Service during the second war led to his attachment to Field Marshall Alexander of Tunis to record the Italian Campaign. In peacetime Seago enjoyed a celebrity status in the London art world of the 1950s and 60s. His shows at Colnaghi’s enjoyed the previously unknown phenomenon of queues of excited buyers waiting for the doors to open. He was a great friend and favourite of the Royal Family, accompanying HRH Prince Philip on Britannia’s 1956 tour of the South the Antarctic, the south Atlantic and West Africa. As a result many of his paintings are held in the Royal Collection as well as the Guildhall Art Gallery, the Government Art Collection, the National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum, Pallant House and the Yale Centre for British Art amongst many others.
Cederberg was a Swedish artist who made his debut on the art world in Helsingborg in 1922. Later he participated in the Skåne Art Association Exhibition in 1926 and the Swedish Public Art Society exhibition in Stockholm in 1941. His themes were mainly landscapes and cityscapes painted in an Impressionistic technique.
Eric Cederberg was born in Helsingborg, Sweden in 1897. A a self-taught artist, he began exhibiting publicly in his mid-twenties and throughout his life travelled widely, always open to the influence of new art movements as he experienced them. Early in his career he was a conventional painter, impressionist in style, but exposure to the Modern French artists led him to explore Cubism and later Surrealism. Both movements came to dominate his work and after the War his paintings followed two distinct strands, divided roughly into Cubist still-lifes and Surreal landscapes. By the last few decades of his life he had settled into repeating a number of motifs over and again, most often Surreal beaches, incorporating sea shells or buildings. In the current blizzard of interest in Mid-century Swedish art it has allowed Cederberg’s visual brand to stand out – the comfort of recognition being a key factor in any artist’s rise to fame. His works are found in the collections of Kristianstad Museum, Västerås Art Museum, Skissernas Museum, Lund and the Helsingborg Museum.
This collection of works from our gallery collection cover nearly half a century of Cederberg’s paintings and the full spectrum of his stylistic evolution over that period.
A Swedish painter and glass designer. Born in Malmö, he studied at the Skåne painting School (Skånska målarskolan) there in 1946 under the German / Danish artist and sculptor Harald Isenstein (1898-1980) before travelling to Paris in 1948 to study under the French sculptors and painters André Lhote (1885-1962) and Jean Fautrier (1898-1964).His first exhibition was held in 1944 with his fellow Skåne painting School student Ib Tollberg (1911-1984) the Killbergs Art Salon in Hälsingborg, southern Sweden. He held numerous solo shows in Sweden throughout the ensuing decades, participating in the annual group shows of the Skåne's Art Association in Malmö and the Autumn Salons in Helsingborg throughout the 1940s and 50s. He was invited to participate in the exhibition 'The Wind' in Copenhagen in 1953.Lundqvist travelled to France (1947-50), Switzerland (1953), and Spain and Morocco (1954). He was a member of the Artists' National Organization (Konstnärernas Riksorganisation) and the Skane Arts Club (Skånska Konstnärsklubben).In 1958, Lundqvist became a designer and artistic advisor at the Trelleborg & Alsterfors Glasbruk (glassworks). Examples of Lundqvist's work can be seen in the Ystad museums and the Malmö General Hospital.One of the best known names of the Swedish Midcentury trend he has become a favourite of Interior Designers and collectors of Midcentury Swedish art alike.
Our second exhibition of Midcentury works by one of Sweden's minor masters of the Modernist era. An unjustly neglected painter, Lundqvist combined the cubism of his master Andre Lhote with a wry Swedish humour to create a visual style that has won him a renewed following amongst interior designers and collectors art alike.
Swedish painter, sculptor, illustrator and glass designer.Lundqvist grew up in the Skåne region in southern Sweden, an area that became known for its artists’ colonies from the nineteenth century. His father was a carpenter so presumably his early memories involved watching him in his workshop, soaking in the atmosphere of creativity. In 1938 he entered the Skånes Painting School, a well-known establishment that had been founded in Malmo, the largest local city, a decade before. The school’s principal Tage Hansson (1889–1968) was a highly competent painter, whose work although traditional in technique was far from old fashioned and demonstrated an awareness of contemporary international artistic currents. Two years under Hansson left Lundqvist with a sound grounding in painting technique that stood him well for the next half century. In 1946 he returned to the school to spend a year’s further studies with the German-Danish sculptor Harald Isenstein (1898-1980.
In 1948 he followed the well-trodden path of many Swedish artists of his generation and travelled to Paris. Although he was tutored by both André Lhote (1885-1962) and Jean Fautrier (1898-1964) it was Lhote who had the most profound influence on Lundqvist’s work. By the early 1950s his rather heavy impressionist style had begun to give way to the clear hard lines of Lhote’s jaunty cubism. For the next forty years Lundqvist painted in this distinctive, paired down style for which he is now so recognised. He travelled to the South of France, Spain and Morocco and much of his work portrays life in climates far hotter than Sweden.
A long and successful commercial career was peppered with numerous exhibitions across Scandinavia. For his last thirty years he enjoyed a parallel life as a respected glassware designer, working first for the Trelleborg Glassworks and from 1958 as artistic director at Alsterfors Glassworks. Lundqvist is represented in public collections in his home country and numerous private collections worldwide. In recent years his modernist compositions, painted with style and a certain gentle humour, have won him a renewed following amongst interior designers and collectors art alike.
Manchester was a painter of landscapes and coastal scenes in oil. He studied at Beckenham School of Art 1946-50 and then at the Royal College of Art in London 1950-53 under John Minton and Ruskin Spear. Manchester exhibited at the Royal Academy, Leicester Galleries, Beaux Art Gallery, and had a one man show at the Redfern Gallery, London. He painted widely along the English coast, and in France, Spain and Italy.
Manchester was a painter of landscapes and coastal scenes in oil. He studied at Beckenham School of Art 1946-50 and then at the Royal College of Art in London 1950-53 under John Minton and Ruskin Spear. Manchester exhibited at the Royal Academy, Leicester Galleries, Beaux Art Gallery, and had a one man show at the Redfern Gallery, London. He painted widely along the English coast, and in France, Spain and Italy.
Lungquist’s father was a merchant, musician, amateur painter and a free thinker. He discovered Theosophy early and was an early member of the Anthroposophical Society when it was formed in 1913. Birger Lunquist was also an enthusiastic anthroposophist, although his dedication over time cooled slightly. He was a follower of Rudolf Steiner who he heard lecture and read Goethe's colour theory. However, he abandoned his interest, for fear that Goethe's and Steiner's analytical relationship to the colours would kill his own intuitive experience. He saw the unconscious as a prerequisite for his artistic creation.
He studied at Caleb Althin's private painting school, at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art and in Paris. He made his exhibiting debut with the thirteenth group show at Liljevalch's Art Hall in 1928. His paintings drew inspiration from Nordic folk lore and old songs, depicting the protagonists mainly young women, as peasants or farm girls in traditional costume. His compositions were lyrical in conception and, more often than not, the young country girls were conceived as idealistic nudes in rural idylls.
He was a successful illustrator, illuminating works by his brother Walter Ljungquist and the poems of Gustaf Fröding. The Swedish Modern Art Gallery holds thirteen of his paintings and his work is also represented in the collections of the museums and galleries of Gothenburg, Kalmar, Norrköping, Borås, Bergen and Linköping. The Swedish National Gallery has a Self-portrait.
Hans Larsson was a Swedish painter born in Malmo. He studied at Scanian painting and technical school in Malmo. Larsson had a long and successful career as a professional painter in Sweden. He was known as a religious painter with a style noticeably influenced by George Rouault and Emile Nolde. However this work dates to his earliest active period between 1928-1937 when he was working and exhibiting in Copenhagen having felt the Danes were more sympathetic to his work than his native Swedes. This is a fascinating painting executed in 1936 when the artist was only twenty six years old, a very modern work in the context of European painting at the time.
Diana Heather Pickering Copley was born at Brewood Hall, Staffordshire. At the astonishing age of 14 she enrolled at Clapham School of Art, remaining there for six years until 1939, supported by a London County Council Intermediate Scholarship. A three-year Senior County Scholarship took her to the Royal College of Art in 1940, the year she married fellow painter Christopher Chamberlain, although her studies were interrupted by service in ARP (Air Raid Precautions) in 1940-41. In 1945, Copley returned to the Royal College where her tutors included Carel Weight, an important influence on her work. From 1948 to 1983, she taught drawing and painting part-time at St Martin's, then one of Britain's most lively and influential schools. Her husband Christopher Chamberlain spent many years as an influential teacher at Camberwell.Although she never had a solo exhibition, Copley participated in mixed shows, including Arts Council travelling exhibitions. In 1951, she gained the Lord Mayor's Art Award, second prize, in a show of London paintings at the Guildhall. Her picture of Lake Trasimeno in the 1978 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was chosen for purchase by the President and Council under the terms of the Harrison Weir Fund. Many foreign collectors bought from Copley, notably the actor Edward G. Robinson, a noted connoisseur. "I think he was very drunk when he bought my work," she said.(Condensed from David Buckman's Obituary for Heather Copley, published in The Independent, 5th December 2001)
Diana Heather Pickering Copley was born at Brewood Hall, Staffordshire. At the astonishing age of 14 she enrolled at Clapham School of Art, remaining there for six years until 1939, supported by a London County Council Intermediate Scholarship. A three-year Senior County Scholarship took her to the Royal College of Art in 1940, the year she married fellow painter Christopher Chamberlain, although her studies were interrupted by service in ARP (Air Raid Precautions) in 1940-41. In 1945, Copley returned to the Royal College where her tutors included Carel Weight, an important influence on her work. From 1948 to 1983, she taught drawing and painting part-time at St Martin's, then one of Britain's most lively and influential schools. Her husband Christopher Chamberlain spent many years as an influential teacher at Camberwell.Although she never had a solo exhibition, Copley participated in mixed shows, including Arts Council travelling exhibitions. In 1951, she gained the Lord Mayor's Art Award, second prize, in a show of London paintings at the Guildhall. Her picture of Lake Trasimeno in the 1978 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition was chosen for purchase by the President and Council under the terms of the Harrison Weir Fund. Many foreign collectors bought from Copley, notably the actor Edward G. Robinson, a noted connoisseur. "I think he was very drunk when he bought my work," she said.(Condensed from David Buckman's Obituary for Heather Copley, published in The Independent, 5th December 2001)
Helen Hale was born in 1936 in Hertfordshire and educated at St. George's School, Harpenden.From 1955 to 1970 she combined a career in designing and illustrating books and book jackets (for the publisher Robert Hale Ltd.) with part-time study at St. Martin's School of Art, London and the Sir John Cass School of Art. During the 1960's she was an active member of the Free Painters and Sculptors group together with the 1960's luminaries Cecil Stephenson and Frank Avray Wilson. She also showed with the National Society, the Royal Institute and the Society for Women Artists. Whilst living in Hampstead Hale was a prominent member of the Hampstead Artist's Council and the Women's International Art Club.
Painter and teacher, born in London, son of the historian and social philosopher Arnold Toynbee and brother of the writer Philip Toynbee. Lawrence’s mother was Rosalind Murray, eldest daughter of Gilbert Murray, the classical scholar and poet. Toynbee’s portrait of him is held by the National Portrait Gallery. In 1945, Toynbee married Jean Asquith, whose father was Arthur, third son of Herbert Asquith, the former Liberal prime minister. He attended Ampleforth College and Oxford University and studied at Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, 1945–7, teachers including Randolph Schwabe, Albert Rutherston, Percy Horton, Rodrigo Moynihan and Kenneth Rowntree. Among his teaching appointments were Ruskin, Oxford School of Art and Morley College, where the Gallery under his direction was notable for its exhibitions.
Toynbee was a member of Marylebone Cricket Club and was especially fond of painting sportsmen in action. Had a series of solo shows at Leicester Galleries, Mayor Gallery, Agnew and Fine Art Society. National Portrait Gallery, several provincial galleries and Marylebone Cricket Club hold examples. Lived latterly at Ganthorpe, Terrington, Yorkshire. In retirement, Toynbee taught for a few years at Bradford College of Art and, having always been a fine all-round sportsman, continued to play cricket, until a bad back made it difficult for him to bowl, his strongest feature. He appeared for I Zingari, the Yorkshire Gentlemen and the Duke of Norfolk’s XI. Only a series of strokes stopped him painting more sporting pictures and the countryside around Castle Howard, with which there was a family connection through his motherText source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Comp)
Magnus Creutz (1909-89)
Born in Southern Sweden, he studied under Edward Berggren (1876-1906) at his private art school in Stockholm. Creutz went on to attend the Könsthogskolan (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm between 1930 and 1935 where he studied under under Gösta von Hennigs (1866-1941) and Isaac Grünewald (1889-1944).
Creutz's held solo exhibitions in Norrköping in 1938 and 1942 before holding an exhibition at Gummesons Gallery, the leading contemporary gallery of the day in Stockholm in 1944. (Gummesons Gallery is one Scandinavia's foremost contemporary art galleries. He continued to exhibit commercially throughout Sweden in the 1940s, particularly as part of the artistic group 'De Unga' and later with the Swedish Public Art Association in Finland (1945) and Denmark (1946).
Creutz taught painting at the Konstfackskolan (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm between 1950 and 1969 and was the curator of the Swedish Public Art Association between 1958 and 1976. He was awarded the Chancellor's Medal in 1939 and was a memeber of the Swedish Artists' national organization.
His paintings are represented in the museum collections in Norrköping, Linköping, Borås and Östersund; at the Ateneum art museum in Helsinki and the Institut Tessin in Paris - a museum dedicated to the history of Franco-Swedish artistic exchanges.
Grete Marks was born in Cologne, Germany; she studied at the Bauhaus School of Arts in 1920. Her early career saw her see great success in the ceramic industry with her own ceramic works committed to progressive design. However she was forced to flee Germany as the National Socialists forcibly purchased the business in 1934 in the growing tide of anti-semitism. Grete came to England with the help of Ambrose Heal, whose department store had regularly stocked Grete’s products and once here she continued to work in ceramics at Mintons and in Stoke.
Grete also painted throughout her life and by the 1950s she was a regular exhibiter at the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street. The gallery’s influential director at this time Rex Nan Kivell hung her work alongside those of Nicholson, Scott and Piper. A selection of Margrete’s pottery is currently on show at the Jewish Museum, London.
Today her works can be found in the Bauhaus Archiv, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Royal Festival Hall, the National Museum of Wales and The British Museum. Grete died in London in 1990, aged 91.
Grete Marks was born in Cologne, Germany; she studied at the Bauhaus School of Arts in 1920. Her early career saw her see great success in the ceramic industry with her own ceramic works committed to progressive design. However she was forced to flee Germany as the National Socialists forcibly purchased the business in 1934 in the growing tide of anti-semitism. Grete came to England with the help of Ambrose Heal, whose department store had regularly stocked Grete’s products and once here she continued to work in ceramics at Mintons and in Stoke.
Grete also painted throughout her life and by the 1950s she was a regular exhibiter at the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street. The gallery’s influential director at this time Rex Nan Kivell hung her work alongside those of Nicholson, Scott and Piper. A selection of Margrete’s pottery is currently on show at the Jewish Museum, London.
Today her works can be found in the Bauhaus Archiv, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Royal Festival Hall, the National Museum of Wales and The British Museum. Grete died in London in 1990, aged 91.
[Nils] Ove Olson (1903–1975)
He began his artistic education at Skåne School of Painting in Malmö, but interrupted his studies to move to Paris in 1929. Following the well-trod road for many young Swedes he enrolled at the Académie Scandinave based at the Maison Watteau. There he was taught by Othon Friesz and Charles Dufresne amongst others while also working at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. His first solo was held in Strasbourg in 1934 to great acclaim, praised particularly enthusiastically by the critic Marcel Sosson (1897-1968).
With the outbreak of war, Olson volunteered to fight for France, joining the infantry and seeing action in the Ardennes, at the Meuse and Verdun. Ending up in German captivity he was forced to work on wall construction for two years whilst imprisoned in Stalag III-A at Luckenwalde. A leg injury led to his repatriation to France and at the end of hostilities he was honoured with the Croix de Guerre and Legion d’Honneur.
After the War Olson’s career continued apace. He was a regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon and held numerous solo exhibitions in Paris and Stockholm. In Paris he was championed by Gunnar Lundberg the founder and first Director of the Tessin Institute and in Stockholm his dealer was Gösta Stenman who had discovered and launched Helene Schjerfbeck.
The City of Paris' awarded him their cultural prize for his artistic work and he is represented in the collections of the French state, the National Museum in Tours and in several French provincial museums as well as at the 'Institut Tessin' in Paris. In Sweden he is represented at the National Museum and Moderna Museet as well as at the museums in Malmö, Helsingborg, Kalmar, Landskrona, Ystad and Kristianstad.
2nd - 12th September in Cecil Court
Discovering Olson’s work nearly twenty years ago I was intrigued that a painter of such talent had been apparently so neglected in the 21st Century. In his lifetime he was celebrated in both Sweden and France gaining commercial success and state recognition but in recent decades his star has waned. We feel it is high time that his paintings had a reappraisal and hope that this collection, put together over twenty years, will go someway towards shining a light on this forgotten master.
Paul Gunn was born in London, in 1934, the only son of Sir James Gunn, RA He was educated at Ampleforth College, and then spent two years in the Life Guards. Much of his early life was spent at Carsthorne on the shore of the Solway Firth, where he spent happy holidays roaming the wild sea shore, and the surrounding countryside, developing a great love of nature and the sea. He took up painting seriously after his father died in 1964, when after 15 years in industry he became an art student, studying at the City and Guilds School in Kennington under Rodney Burn and Robin Guthrie for four years. Like his father, he specialised in portrait painting for a number of years, but then turned to landscapes. He has exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, has pictures in national collections, and has held over 20 one man shows between London and New York.
Peter Brannan RBA (1926-1994)Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and teacher, born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. He studied at Grimsby School of Art, then Leicester College of Art. He taught mainly in Newark, Nottinghamshire. Brannan was elected RBA in 1960 and was president of Lincolnshire and South Humberside Artists. He showed in mixed exhibitions at RA, NEAC, LG and elsewhere, having a series of solo shows with Trafford Gallery, one at Usher Gallery, Lincoln, 1978, and a retrospective at Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, in 1995. Usher Gallery, Grundy House Museum in Blackpool and Lincolnshire Education Committee hold his work. Brannan admired the work of French Post-Impressionists, also Cotman and Chardin. Lived in Welbourn, Lincoln.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
Brannan showed a great admiration for the work of the French Post-Impressionists and also the still-lifes of Chardin. Yet the Lincolnshire landscape held equal appeal as a source of inspiration and throughout his 30 years in Newark Brannan produced numerous paintings of the market town and its people. As art critic Eric Newton observed, “it is evident that Newark is as stimulating to him as Montmartre was to Utrillo.” Courtesy of Goldmark Gallery in Uppingham, Rutland who have several of his paintings.
Peter Brannan RBA (1926-1994)Painter, draughtsman, printmaker and teacher, born in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. He studied at Grimsby School of Art, then Leicester College of Art. He taught mainly in Newark, Nottinghamshire. Brannan was elected RBA in 1960 and was president of Lincolnshire and South Humberside Artists. He showed in mixed exhibitions at RA, NEAC, LG and elsewhere, having a series of solo shows with Trafford Gallery, one at Usher Gallery, Lincoln, 1978, and a retrospective at Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, in 1995. Usher Gallery, Grundy House Museum in Blackpool and Lincolnshire Education Committee hold his work. Brannan admired the work of French Post-Impressionists, also Cotman and Chardin. Lived in Welbourn, Lincoln.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
Brannan showed a great admiration for the work of the French Post-Impressionists and also the still-lifes of Chardin. Yet the Lincolnshire landscape held equal appeal as a source of inspiration and throughout his 30 years in Newark Brannan produced numerous paintings of the market town and its people. As art critic Eric Newton observed, “it is evident that Newark is as stimulating to him as Montmartre was to Utrillo.” Courtesy of Goldmark Gallery in Uppingham, Rutland who have several of his paintings.
Born in Dulwich the son of a shoemaker, he won a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art where ih studied under William Ghillies in the late 1930s. After active service with the artillery in Italy Reid joined the staff of the Tate in 1946. He was appointed the right-hand man of the then Director, John Rothenstein, becoming deputy director in 1954 and keeper in 1959. He was appointed Director when Rothenstein retired in 1964. His tenure saw the expansion of the 'North East Quadrant' of the old gallery the expansion of the collection in the area of early twentieth-century European art. In 1972, the Tate purchased Equivalent VIII, a 1966 work by American sculptor Carl Andre which consisted of a stack of 120 ready-made fire bricks – the ensuing press hostility caused great embarrassment, overshadowing the remainder of his career. His artistic training allowed him to forge strong personal relationships with artists that led to significant donations – Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals being perhaps the best known. Barbara Hepworth (Reid later acted as one of her executors), Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Henry Moore all gifted works to the Tate out of their personal respect for Reid. He is widely regarded as the foremost of the Tate's Directors, having developed the gallery into a first rank international museum. Reid’s work is represented in the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.
Born in Dulwich the son of a shoemaker, he won a scholarship to Edinburgh College of Art where ih studied under William Ghillies in the late 1930s. After active service with the artillery in Italy Reid joined the staff of the Tate in 1946. He was appointed the right-hand man of the then Director, John Rothenstein, becoming deputy director in 1954 and keeper in 1959. He was appointed Director when Rothenstein retired in 1964. His tenure saw the expansion of the 'North East Quadrant' of the old gallery the expansion of the collection in the area of early twentieth-century European art. In 1972, the Tate purchased Equivalent VIII, a 1966 work by American sculptor Carl Andre which consisted of a stack of 120 ready-made fire bricks – the ensuing press hostility caused great embarrassment, overshadowing the remainder of his career. His artistic training allowed him to forge strong personal relationships with artists that led to significant donations – Mark Rothko’s Seagram Murals being perhaps the best known. Barbara Hepworth (Reid later acted as one of her executors), Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Henry Moore all gifted works to the Tate out of their personal respect for Reid. He is widely regarded as the foremost of the Tate's Directors, having developed the gallery into a first rank international museum. Reid’s work is represented in the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.
