Informal shots of some of the works in our St Ives & Modern British Art 2024 exhibition installed in the studio and showing spaces in Towednack, St Ives. The show opened with a very lively Private View and Book Launch on Saturday 30th April. To view all 112 works (paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints) by more than 50 different artists, please use the following links:
31 March – 22 April 2024, Belgrave St Ives
The exhibition includes works by key members of the group of Moderns working in and around St Ives in the second half of the 20th Century, particularly the group of artists who founded the influential ‘Crypt Group’, which led directly to the formation of the Penwith Society of Artists. The show also includes works by established Modern British artists working outside of the Cornish milieu, as well as less well-known artists, with a particular focus on female artists working in the period. Works by this latter group, illustrated in the extensive exhibition catalogue, are accompanied by short biographical texts that give an insight into what were often extraordinary lives, giving the chance to view the work in a wider personal and historical context.
Other artists in the exhibition include: Gillian Ayers, W. Barns-Graham, Romi Behrens, Sven Berlin, Michael Canney, Terry Frost, David Haughton, Patrick Hayman, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Margo Maeckelberghe, Ben Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Bryan Pearce, William Scott, David Smith, Arnold van Praag, Keith Vaughan, Alfred Wallis, John Wells, Karl Weschke, Bryan Wynter and others.
Moira Beaty and Hilda Goldwag, both of whom were displaced by the Second World War, drew on their experience of the visceral Scottish landscape to create dark-skyed, brooding, wintery landscapes reflective of their experiences. Both artists utilised the palette knife in a way that enables us to feel the soil of the land and sense its depth of biodiversity. The heavy air of Northern saltmarshes, moorlands, farmland and scrub are laid before us. Moira Beaty studied at Glasgow School of Art where her contemporaries included Joan Eardley and Margot Sandman. The War interrupted her studies and she was recruited to Bletchley Park where she worked as a code breaker with Peter Twinn’s team. She exhibited at (amongst others) the Open Eye Gallery Edinburgh, Collins Gallery Glasgow, Cadogan Gallery London and Gracefield Arts Centre, where a major retrospective exhibition of her, and husband Stuart Beaty’s work, was held in 2001.
Born in Vienna, Hilda Goldwag graduated from the Graphische Staatsämter und Versuchs Anmalt with special commendation in 1938. Following the Anschluss, Goldwag managed to secure a travel permit to Scotland (1939). Tragically her family couldn’t leave Austria in time and were later murdered by the Nazis. Whilst continuing to paint, Goldwag also worked as a book illustrator and occupational therapist.
Another female artist, Cornish-born Margo Maeckelberghe, has three landscape paintings in the show, all capturing the drama of the far west of Cornwall. Chûn Castle, West Penwith harnesses the boundless moorland of her homeplace, whilst Sea Spray gives you the feeling of standing on a cliff edge. In the catalogue for her solo exhibition at Tate St Ives in 2008, Margo Maeckelberghe – Extended Landscape, the artist’s ‘brooding sense of colour and light’ is described, and it is these qualities that leave you transfixed. Chûn Castle lies on a high spot on the West Penwith moors, near to Pendeen, and is an impressive Iron-Age hillfort. Maeckelberghe, like Peter Lanyon and Barbara Hepworth and other St Ives Modernists, was attracted to the historical potency of such sites.
A second thread in the exhibition is a feature about The Crypt Group. Exhibiting their work independently in The Crypt (of the deconsecrated Mariners church, St Ives) from 1946 – 49, this group of artists positioned their Modernist approach to art in opposition to the more traditional/impressionist orthodoxy of the St Ives Society of Artists. The original instigators of the group,Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Sven Berlin, Peter Lanyon, (Guido Morris), John Wells and Bryan Wynter, each have a work in the show. A new publication, The Crypt Group 1946-49: Rites of Penwith Passage, written by Peter Davies and published by St Ives Printing and Publishing Company, will be launched at the Private View.
A number of the works representing The Crypt Group are contemporary to the existence of the group, including a 1947 drawing by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and a figurative sculpture by Sven Berlin from 1948. Abstraction is represented through the work of John Wells and the work of other Modernists in the exhibition such as Patrick Heron.
An abstract painting not to be missed is a 1960 canvas by Roger Hilton.
Other key paintings include figurative works by Gillian Ayres and David Smith, and – transporting us back to Cornwall – a painting by Alfred Wallis. He casts us four boats; they sail close to us, at the bottom of the composition, slinking past in what feels like an overcast slightly turbulent day at sea.
A 1947 ink and wash drawing called Landscape with Thistle by Bryan Wynter, moves us back to moorland and homestead. In a similar way to Seamus Heaney’s poem Mint, the title and content of the picture make us dwell on the connotations of the thistle plant, and its resilience and presence alongside humans.
About the gallery
Each year Belgrave St Ives offers collectors the opportunity to explore more accessibly priced works by major names and less well-known British Artists working in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.
Belgrave St Ives opened in 1998 in the centre of St Ives and moved from the historic town to the countryside 2 miles outside in 2020. Visitors can now enjoy the beautiful moorland hinterland of St Ives whilst viewing art. The new location near Towednack, stretches down to Zennor and beyond, via Carn Galva and through to Pendeen and St Just. The area has been home to many of St Ives best known and accomplished artists: Patrick Heron, Bryan Wynter, Karl Weschke, Sandra Blow, Trevor Bell, Roger Hilton, and many others.
Fully illustrated catalogue available.
#belgravestives @belgravestives
For further information and images, please contact Richard Blackborow:
Belgrave St Ives, Higher Bussow Farm, Towednack, St Ives, Cornwall, TR26 3BB
richard@belgravestives.co.uk
tel. 01736 794888
ENDS
Please enjoy these informal installation shots of our exhibition of 27 of the 32 drawings made for The Dark Monarch by Sven Berlin. Executed c.1955, these drawings were used as illustrations for his notorious roman-à-clef The Dark Monarch in 1962. The work was a thinly-disguised and irreverent portrait of St Ives, its artists, and others who lived and worked in the town. Among the loosely disguised cast of artistic characters were W. Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Bernard Leach, Peter Lanyon, Patrick Heron, Bryan Wynter and many others. The novel was withdrawn soon after publication, when legal action was taken by four of the local ‘characters’ in the book. This is the first time that the original drawings made for the novel have been exhibited.
You can view the individual works in the exhibition by following this link to the gallery website.
Our flagship exhibition of works by artists associated with St Ives Modernism opens on 6th April. This annual exhibition offers collectors the chance to buy over 100 accessibly-priced works by most of the key names in post-War St Ives art, as well as presenting quality works by some less well known artists working in St Ives during the period.
Above: Dennis Mitchell Breage 1969 Bronze
Over 50 artists associated with the St Ives School are included, such as: Robert Adams, John Barnicoat, W. Barns-Graham, Romi Behrens, Sven Berlin, Sandra Blow, Bob Bourne, Henry Cliffe, Roy Conn, Tom Cross, Bob Crossley, John Emanuel, Michael Finn, Clifford Fishwick, Terry Frost, Jeff Harris, Patrick Hayman, Isobel Heath, Adrian Heath, Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Rose Hilton, Roger Hilton, Inez Hoyton, Bryan Ingham, Peter Lanyon, Jeremy Le Grice, Margo Maeckelberghe, William Marshall, June Miles, John Milne, Denis Mitchell, Ben Nicholson, Kate Nicholson, Breon O’Casey, J A Park, Victor Pasmore, Bryan Pearce, Jack Pender, Douglas Portway, Peter Potworowski, Tommy Rowe, William Scott, Michael Snow, John Wells, Karl Weschke and Bryan Wynter.
Key sculptural works
Michael Snow Landscape Construction 1986
Oil on canvas board with metal construct; 32 x 28 cms (perspex box)
John Milne Resurgence
Bronze; Edition of 2/9
Literature: ‘The Sculpture of John Milne’, Peter Davies, 2000, pages 38 and 89
Tommy Rowe Two Forms Roskestal
Bronze; Edition 1/9
Paintings, highlights
Patrick Heron 5:15 p.m. June 11 : 1984 (with charcoal) 1984
Oil and charcoal on canvas; 41 x 51 cms
Signed, titled, dated and inscribed on the reverse (also titled on canvas overlap) Exhibited: Patrick Heron, Barbican Art Gallery, London,1985, cat. no.64
Kate Nicholson Haystack in Cumbrian Fields c1950s
Oil on board; 99 x 91 cms
Signed on artist’s label on reverse
Breon O’Casey Untitled
Acrylic on paper; 33 x 50 cms
Signed and dated
Sought after prints
Victor Pasmore Points of Contact No.26 1974
Lithograph; 49 x 51 cms
Frame size: 101.5 x 76.5 cms Signed with monogram
There is a copy of this print in the Tate Collection
Ben Nicholson Abstract Composition 1935/36
Screenprint, 66.5 x 80 cms (sheet)
From the ‘Penwith Portfolio’ of 1973 Printed by Stanley Jones at The Curwen Press Signed in pencil on reverse Edition of 90
William Scott Blue Still Life 1975
Frame size: 80 x 100 cms Printed at Curwen Studio, London Published by Editions Electo Ltd, London Signed in the stone with the publication line
You can view more works here. A full coloured catalogue is available on request.
For further information and images, please contact Richard Blackborow:
Belgrave St Ives, 22 Fore Street, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1HE
tel. 01736 794888
A re-visit to the Sven part of the ‘Dark Monarch’ exhibition in 2009 (Magic and Modernity in British Art at Tate St Ives)
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…
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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.
This is a great documentary about Sven Berlin which is currently playing in the entrance to the Penlee House exhibition
15 September – 24 November 2012
at Penlee House
Everyone’s got to go if they haven’t yet!
You can view work Belgrave St Ives holds by Sven on our website.
As an aside, our last solo show of Sven’s was in 2011 to mark his Centenary . You can view elements of the show here.
The documentary is directed by Cathy Sayers, Vision On Communications
Belgrave St Ives 