Mark Lancaster

Red, Green, Orange & Purple Chalk Pastel by Mark Lancaster, circa 1960s

circa 1960s

Gordon House was born in 1932 in Pontardawe, South Wales. Early exposure to art on trips to the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery as a young boy inspired House towards creative endeavors and at the age of fourteen he was awarded a grant to enter art school which he accepted. From 1947 to 1950 he studied at Luton School of Art, Bedfordshire, and St. Albans School of Art, Hertfordshire. House's contemporaries included Richard Smith and John Plumb with whom he remained close. During the early fifties, after finishing art school, House began work as assistant to the ecclesiastical sculptor Theodore Kern. He also spent time at an advertising studio where he honed his burgeoning skills in typography and graphic design. In 1952 House was offered the position of designer for Imperial Chemical Industries Plastics Division where he stayed until 1959. This was followed by two years spent as graphic designer for the Kynoch Press in London. In 1961 House set out on his own as a self-employed designer and typographer. Initially this was supplemented by part-time teaching at art schools in and around London but by 1964 House was able to devote himself entirely to his design work which freed up valuable time to concentrate on his own artistic output in the studio. In the late fifties, informed by the new art emerging from America and that of his contemporaries in England, House began to create large-scale abstract works which he was invited to show in 1959 at Dennis Bowen's legendary New Vision Centre in Marble Arch. House was an active participant in the vibrant London art scene of the sixties, regularly attending lectures, exhibitions and discussions. In 1960 he exhibited in 'Situation' the key abstract exhibition of the decade held at the RBA Galleries. Other participating artists included Robyn Denny, Bernard and Harold Cohen, Gillian Ayres, John Hoyland, Richard Smith and William Turnbull among others. These artists, united by a common admiration for American Abstract Expressionism, were frustrated by the lack of exposure given to large-scale abstract works in commercial galleries so they organised their own exhibition. The name was derived from the participants' idea that an abstract painting that occupied the whole field of vision would involve the spectator in an 'event' or 'situation'. This exhibition was followed by 'New London Situation' in 1961 and a nationwide touring Arts Council presentation in recognition of the significance of the two earlier shows. In 1961 House began producing his first prints at the Kelpra Studio, run by Chris and Rose Prater, where he made the earliest fine art screenprint ever to be produced in Britain. Artists such as Paolozzi and Hamilton followed in his footsteps and together they started a printmaking revolution in Britain. They cemented the medium of the screenprint in the world of fine art as opposed to the commercial sphere and secured the reputation of Kelpra in the process. Later, together with Cliff White, House set up the White Ink (Ltd.) print studio in London, where he produced etchings and wood engravings on a series of magnificent antique printing presses...

Abstract 1, Oil Pastel and Pencil on Paper Painting by Henry Cliffe Additional information: Medium: Oil pastel and pencil on paper 23 1/8 x 20 in 58.5 x 51 cm

L.P. IV (Blue on Red + Green), Oil & Cryla on Board Painting by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 1968 Additional information: Medium: Oil and cryla on board 40.4 x 40.4 cm 15 7/8 x 15 7/8 i...

Study for Cambridge, Liqutex on Canvas Painting by Mark Lancaster 1938-2021, 1968 Additional information: Medium: Liqutex on canvas 36 x 36 cm 14 1/8 x 14 1/8 in Signed Mark Lancas...

pastel on paper, signed lower right. Henri Bernard Goetz (September 29, 1909 – August 12, 1989) was a French American Surrealist painter and engraver. He is known for his artwork, a...

Peter Robert Keil was born to an artist blacksmith father whom he lost very early in his childhood during the Second World War. During the end phase of the war, Keil's mother, also a...

Valerie Christell's large pastel drawings from the early 1980s take the landscape and make it abstract. In them, she tries to emulate the experience of seeing the land while driving at high speed on the back of a motorcycle. The resulting imagery is rendered in energetic and gestural line work that morphs into large fields of color. This example, 'Orange/Black abstract,' takes on the appearance of nighttime, lit only by the light of the motorcycle headlight...

D. Tongen "Orange and Blue" 1980s 11.75"x9.75" Soft pastel and pencil on paper Initialed and dated in pencil lower right