Our exhibition of 10 Abstract and Ten Figurative paintings, mainly by artists not usually associated with St Ives, is now OPEN. Works in the show are drawn primarily from the gallery collection.
Artists include: Muriel Archer, John Bratby, Joyce Cairns, Maurice Cockrill, Richard Cook, Fred Crayk, Emanuel Phillips Fox (attributed to), John Hopwood, Francis Hoyland, Henry Inlander, John Kingerlee, Antoni Malinowski, Nicholas May, Derek Middleton, Alastair Morton (attributed to), Jerzy Panek, Jonas Plosky, Fred Pollock, Gary Wragg and Phil Whiting.
Please click on images above to view a slideshow of the installation, or view individual works in the exhibition on the gallery website using this link:
The current exhibition at Tate St Ives, ‘Modern Art and St Ives’, features most of the major names of post-War St Ives Art and places their work in the context of European and US Modernism of the period.
Our new exhibition presents 16 works by artists included in the Tate exhibition and brings them together both in the gallery and in a PDF-only catalogue displaying the works in a gallery context.
Includes works by: Kenneth Armitage, W.Barns-Graham, Trevor Bell, Sandra Blow, Alan Davie, Paul Feiler, Terry Frost, Patrick Hayman, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Ben Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Victor Pasmore and John Wells.
Please enjoy these informal installation shots of our current exhibition: TWO POETIC PAINTERS – Tom Early & Patrick Hayman featuring works by two artists working in St Ives during the early 1950s. Whilst sharing a similar poetic vision in their painting, born within a year of each other the two artists came from very different backgrounds, pursued distinctly personal approaches, and, as far as we know, their paths rarely crossed in St Ives. And yet there is a something that unifies their work, and this exhibition explores these correspondences.
When we heard of plans to re-issue Sven’s book ‘The Dark Monarch‘, we were happy to be able to include the launch of the book with the exhibition of works by Sven that we had been planning for some time. When we then heard some time later that Tate St Ives were planning to use the title of the book as the title for their Autumn exhibition, it made sense for us to time our show to coincide with theirs, and it has been good to have a chance to work more closely with their curatorial team here in St Ives.
Those of you who have seen the Tate St Ives exhibition will know that it includes several works by Sven, many of which are on loan from Belgrave Gallery. The beautiful, striking owl, which we have been showing in our window overlooking Fore Street in Gallery Two…
SVEN BERLIN ‘Polymath’ opened on Sat 7 Oct 2017 with a lively Private View, and has been very busy – St Ives thronging with visitors celebrating the full opening of the new Tate St Ives. The show here is being very well received, and it is great to have such a good number of Sven’s sculptures on display. There are also early drawings, voluptuous still lifes, glowing self portraits and Svenographic prints. We also have a display of books written by the artist. You can view the complete show on the gallery website by following this link.
PRESS RELEASE
New One-Person Exhibition:
9–30 Oct 2017, Belgrave St Ives
Private View Sat 7 Oct 6 – 8pm
A major name in St Ives post-War art, Sven Berlin entered the canon of history through the critically acclaimed Tate exhibition ‘The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art’ in which Modernism was repositioned.
Berlin quickly made his mark as a romantic and unorthodox figure within the creative milieu that was the St Ives art scene of the 1940s and 1950s and the name of the Tate exhibition took its title from his infamous book ‘The Dark Monarch’. The book is a colourful portrayal of several identifiable characters in the town and it led to libel actions that almost ruined him financially.
Berlin carving outside the tower (his St Ives studio) in 1947
To note, he arrived in Cornwall before Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth, and was a founder member of the Crypt Group (1946), which was the basis for the consolidation of the post-War school of British Modernism that St Ives became famous for. He was an adagio dancer before becoming a visual artist, and his powerful flamboyant personality clashed with several of the other artists centred around St Ives. In 1953 he left Cornwall in a horse and cart (people alive today still recount the story of him tearing away at a clatter and with speed) to live amongst the gypsy community of the New Forest finally settling in Dorset, where he died in 1999.
Berlin’s tremendous artistic output, traversed a wide range of media: sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, autobiography, novel writing and poetry. The graphic strength of Berlin’s two-dimensional work underpinned every element of his creative work, particularly the three-dimensional draughtsmanship to be found in his stone carving. It is a fact that all great sculptors are consummate drawers (see for example Elizabeth Frink, Frank Dobson, Gaudier Brzeska et al). In addition to this draftsmanship evident in the drawings and sculpture, the innate flamboyance of Berlin’s character was given full and vibrant expression in a series of beautifully rich still life works, natural history paintings and self-portraits, which can also be seen in the exhibition.
Berlin’s strength of character, which enabled him to reach the heights of artistic excellence while enduring grinding poverty, was matched by an immense physical strength enabling him to carve granite. Above all his life was characterised by an indomitable polymathic spirit. Belgrave St Ives represents the Estate of Sven Berlin and is pleased to continue the exhibition programme of this artist’s work that began in 1989 with Belgrave Gallery, London. A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies ‘Polymath’.
Sven Berlin ‘Amanita Phalloides, New Forest’ 1954, oil on board; 34 x 52.5cm.
Sven Berlin ‘Praying Mantis’, pen, ink and wash; 38.5 x 29 cm.
Sven Berlin ‘OFC: Ancient Mariner’ 1995, marble; 6.25 cm (H).
NOTES TO EDITORS
For further information and images, please contact Richard Blackborow:
Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE richard@belgravestives.co.uk tel. 01736 794888
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.
Berlin carving outside the tower (his St Ives studio) in 1947
Sven Berlin ‘Amanita Phalloides, New Forest’ 1954, oil on board; 34 x 52.5cm.
Sven Berlin ‘Praying Mantis’, pen, ink and wash; 38.5 x 29 cm.
