ALICE MUMFORD Strategic Colour: PRESS RELEASE

New One-Person Exhibition:
ALICE MUMFORD Strategic Colour

11 Sept – 2 Oct 2017, Belgrave St Ives
Private View Sat 9 Sept 6 – 8pm

Light is Alice Mumford’s essential subject. She creates paintings that bathe you in the lazy heat of summer or the white light of a crispy winter’s morning.

Belgrave St Ives is pleased to announce the sixth solo exhibition to be held in the gallery by the painter Alice Mumford. Thirty-four works have been especially created for this show. The artist asks the viewer to study and celebrate with her the importance of colour and how it can be used to picture the everyday ordinariness but also wonder of life. In one of her painting courses (she is regarded highly as a teacher of painting and excerpts can be found on online), she explains that people make the mistake in thinking that a photograph is a true depiction of something; she alludes to the fact that it is just one reality.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition with an essay by Dr Ian Massey.

Her work reflects the seasons. Here, Summer Heat on the Patio, Lesceave, Cornwall summons the optical effects of high summer, the way that motes swim and things momentarily appear to shimmer and dissolve as one narrows one’s gaze as it moves from shadow towards the glare of the sun. Frost and Early Morning Sun is equally though differently dramatic, its raked wintry light causing long bluish shadows whilst making hues in a bowl of fruit sharper. Quotes from great artists about colour accompany the following pages of the catalogue, and are selected to help look deeper into Alice’s work.

“Colour! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.” Paul Gauguin – aside painting The Emerald Green Cloth. 

“All colours arouse specific associative ideas…” Yves Klein – aside painting Chair and Two Blues.

Mumford is a painter who is entirely focused on her craft. Following training at Dartington, Camberwell, Southwark and Falmouth Colleges of Art, she has become one of the most accomplished painters currently working in Cornwall. After early successes with Cobra & Bellamy, Julian Lax and Badcocks Gallery, Mumford has been represented by Belgrave St Ives since 2005, during which time she has established herself as a pre-eminent painter of still life interiors that draw heavily on her own domestic life. Sansom & Co published a first monograph of her work in 2015.

#ArtStives #StrategicColour #BathedInLight

PHOTO CAPTIONS
Summer Days at Lesceave, Cornwall, Oil on canvas; 100 x 102 cm
The Emerald Green Cloth, Oil on canvas; 40 x 40 cms
Chair and Two Blues, Oil on canvas; 25 x 35 cms
Studio Shot of Alice Mumford

Further captioned images below

NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information and images, please contact Richard Blackborow: Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HErichard@belgravestives.co.uk
tel.  01736 794888

Spring Flowers Against the Light

In the studio: still life set-up

Summer’s Day, Lesceave, Cornwall

“Each colour is applied to the canvas in relation to the colours next to it. The painting becomes a living thing and calls out for the colour it want”, Neil Patterson.

ENDS

TERRY FROST A Book of Ideas

New One-Person Exhibition:

TERRY FROST A Book of Ideas Paintings and Collages from the Artist’s Large Format Work Book. 19 June – 15 July 2017. Private View 17 June 6 – 8pm.

A rare opportunity to view a selection of work from the artist’s large format work/sketch book – never previously exhibited.

A Book of Ideas – Page 22, Acrylic; 46 x 37cm by Terry Frost

Following Terry Frost’s death in 2003, the studio contents were gradually relocated to a specially converted art store. Whilst archiving the artist’s collection some years later, a large format, cloth-bound sketchbook was discovered amongst the artist’s retained paintings and effects.

The richly illustrated volume contained over 50 paintings and collages. A number of these images were developed into known paintings or worked into recognisable print media editions, but some have remained as fascinating prototypes/imaginings of what might have been. Several of the artist’s favourite subjects are explored here, for example ‘Suspended Forms’, ‘Sun and Moon’ theme, the ‘Lorca’ series, etc. The book covers the period 1970s up to 1981.

We have selected a group of 32 individual works from the sketchbook to be mounted and framed for this exhibition. Mostly mixed media, all the works are a standard page size of 46 x 37cm single sheet and 46 x 74cm double sheet. The artworks have been reproduced for this exhibition catalogue in approximately the same sequence they appear in the original sketchbook, to follow the artist’s thought processes.

Over half the originals from the Book of Ideas are reproduced in an archival catalogue published to accompany the exhibition.

A Book of Ideas – Page 7, Collage, gouache and oil pastel; 46 x 37cm by Terry Frost

SIR TERRY FROST RA (1915 – 2003)

Frost was born in Leamington Spa within a working class family. He was encouraged to paint by the artist Adrian Heath, a fellow captive, whilst a Prisoner of War in Germany. Frost moved to St Ives in 1947 and formed part of the group of younger artists (including Sven Berlin, W Barns-Graham and Bryan Wynter) attracted to the place by the cheaper living costs, better climate/light than much of the UK and the other artists already established in the area – Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson etc.

Quickly gaining recognition amongst his peers, Frost was awarded the Gregory Fellowship at Leeds University (1952). Teaching at Leeds College of Art, he later became Professor of Painting at Reading University (a position he held until retiring from Teaching in 1981).

Frost exhibited extensively in the UK and Overseas in both one person and significant group exhibitions. He was one of a small number of British Artists at the time with an international reputation. He was elected Royal Academician in 1992 and Knighted for his services to Art and Art Education in 1998. His work is in major private and public collections worldwide including Tate Gallery, Arts Council and British Council. There is also an extensive bibliography for the artist.

Best know for his exuberant and colourful abstract paintings, collages and prints, Terry Frost shared his zest for art and life with boundless energy and enthusiasm.

Portrait of Terry Frost in his Newlyn studio c.1999, courtesy of the Artist’s Estate

BELGRAVE ST IVES

The gallery has a long association of working with the artist Terry Frost and subsequently with the Artist’s Estate. The artist’s first one-person show with the gallery was held in 1989.

The Belgrave Gallery was established in London in1974 and its sister gallery opened in St Ives in 1998, becoming independent as Belgrave St Ives in 2010. The gallery specialises in exhibiting Modern British and Contemporary Art with an emphasis on work produced in Cornwall.

A Book of Ideas – Page 14/15, Gouache and graphite; 46 x 74cm by Terry Frost

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information and images (and higher resolution), please contact Richard Blackborow: Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE richard@belgravestives.co.uk tel. 01736 794888

ENDS

Installation: St Ives Exhibition 2017 & Debbie Urquhart ‘Recent St Ives Paintings’

 

Our two new exhibitions are now open after a Private View on Saturday night (1/4/17). The town has been busy with the re-opening of the ‘old’ part of Tate St Ives, and many visitors have been enjoying our new shows. Please click on an image above to enter a slideshow of the gallery installation. You can also view individual works in the exhibitions by visiting the gallery website using the following links:

ST IVES EXHIBITION 2017 | DEBBIE URQUHART ‘Recent St Ives Paintings’

Brian Rice: Paintings from the Artist’s Archive – Installation Shots

Our first show of this year’s busy exhibition season presents paintings and prints by Dorset-based artist Brian Rice, hanging – for the first time – across all gallery spaces. With works dating from 1953 to 2016, this represents a thorough overview of his long career, which started in the West Country but came to national attention in London during the ‘Swinging Sixties’. A subsequent post will present installation shots of the prints hanging in our second gallery across the way. The exhibition continues until 27 March 2017, and all works in the show can be viewed using the following links:

BRIAN RICE PAINTINGS  |  BRIAN RICE PRINTS

Brian Rice – Paintings, Press and Preview

On March 4th 2017 we held Brian Rice’s private view, which included the artist signing his new book Brian Rice – Paintings 1952-2016. You can purchase this from us during the exhibition at a special price of £30. Through our installation shots you can peruse the front and back gallery, and to help context, there have been a number of publications about the exhibition including ‘Country Life’ and below ‘Resurgence & Ecologist’. You can view the full exhibition here. We will soon post images of Brian’s Prints in Gallery 2. Here’s a sneak of Brian at the Private View!  You can Find us on FB, Twitter and Instagram #belgravestives  as well as this blog.

Brian Rice Installation – View 7

Above left: Brian Rice, ‘Drawing No.6 (Yellowfield)’, Gouache and pastel on paper; 59 x 40.5 cms. Right: Brian Rice’s catalogues and books previously published.

Above: ‘An Artist Renewed By Time, Earth and Place’ • Emma Crichton-Miller A profile of Brian Rice, ‘Resurgence & Ecologist‘ magazine, March/April 2017, No. 301 MANIFESTO FOR A GREEN MIND.

Brian Rice Paintings 2017 © Graham Gaunt Photowork

Celtic 1964, Oil on canvas; 69 x 69 cms.

Brian Rice Paintings from the Artist’s Archive 2017 © Graham Gaunt Photowork

Above: Brian Rice, Wessex Landscape 1982, Gouache on Bockingford paper; 58.5 x 76 cms.

Rice’s career trajectory has seen a working-class country boy going to the city and then returning to the country – very Thomas Hardy, very Jude the Obscure. In London, instead of fields and hedges, Rice was looking at street signs and advertisements, and for a time that suited him and his art. But the sustenance of such popular imagery – and its formal geometrical counterpart – was soon exhausted, and Rice had to look elsewhere to refresh the week-springs of his art. He re-encountered the countryside and began to explore it in greater depth. As chevrons now became the patterns of fields emerging through snow, so did his more heavily worked paintings express his new understanding. (‘What’s underneath became as important for me as what’s on the surface.’ he declared.)

Andrew Lambirth, November – December 2015, Extract from essay in Brian Rice Paintings 1952 – 2016.

Brian Rice Paintings from the Artist’s Archive 2017 © Graham Gaunt Photowork

Brian Rice: The Creation of the Buddha of Time Passed, 1962, Oil on canvas; 121 x 91.5 cms.

Brian Rice – Paintings and Prints from the Artist’s Archive

New One-Person Exhibition: 6 – 27 March 2017, Belgrave St Ives  

Private View 4 March 6 – 8pm

A unique opportunity to view a selection of work from West Country artist Brian Rice’s personal collection

Belgrave St Ives is pleased to announce an exhibition selected from Rice’s extensive archive. Paintings and prints will be shown across both gallery spaces, the first time a solo artist will occupy the whole of the gallery.

The exhibition has been arranged to coincide with the launch of the book:

Brian Rice Paintings 1952 – 2016 (with an essay by Andrew Lambirth). First full catalogue of paintings by major British artist, highly fashionable in the sixties and now critically acclaimed for his later work. Published by Sansom & Co., 2016. ISBN: 978-1-908326-96-6

Brian Rice’s career covers a period of remarkable dedication and innovation as an accomplished painter and printmaker. He was born in 1936 in Yeovil, Somerset and studied at Yeovil School of Art from 1952-56 and then Goldsmiths College, London from 1958-59. Rice’s formative years as an artist were in London during the 1960s where he was very much part of the ‘swinging’ art scene that included David Hockney, Peter Blake, Joe Tilson, Allen Jones and Derek Boshier. During this period, the paintings and prints he produced formed part of the zeitgeist and appeared in fashion shoots, set designs and TV commercials. His work, which achieved national and international publicity and acclaim, quickly found its way into worldwide collections.

Number One 1960, Oil and mixed media on board; 91.5 x 121 cms by Brian Rice.

During the mid-1970s a change in Rice’s circumstances led him to leave London to return to his roots in the West Country. He became a farmer in Dorset, while continuing to teach part-time at Brighton College of Art (1972 – 91). Although rarely exhibiting during this period, he continued to work slowly developing a visual language that was part of a dialogue with the past, inspired by marks made by prehistoric man and the archaeology of the Dorset landscape. In 1995 he started exhibiting again with a renewed fervor.

Following Rice’s exhibition of groundbreaking 1960s’ paintings and prints at the Redfern Gallery, London, in 2014, the opportunity to review his earlier work inspired a new series of totally abstract paintings based around Constructivist and Bauhaus principles. This exhibition has developed from a second catalogue raisonné about his work (the first was a catalogue of prints, the second of paintings).

Brian Rice working in his studio 2016. Photograph by Matt Austin.

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information and images, please contact Richard Blackborow:

Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE

tel. 01736 794888

Email contact

ENDS

Installation: Prints & Drawings 2016

 

Our annual Prints & Drawings exhibition is now hung, opened, online and HAPPENING! Please enjoy these informal shots of the show, which is presented across all gallery spaces. Including the corners…

Containing some 120 works by Contemporary, Modern British & St Ives Modern artists, the show can be seen in the gallery until 7th January 2017, and can be viewed online here:

belgravestives.co.uk