Bernard Kay

Cosmos - British Fifties Abstract Expressionist art oil painting red white blue

1957

This stunning abstract expressionist oil on canvas is by artist Helen M Hale. Painted in the 1960's this abstract landscape has strong brushwork and blocks of colour. Labelled verso...

An original large abstract oil on canvas by British Canadian artist William John Bertram Newcombe. This stunning abstract expressionist oil is a bold, adventurous and confident abstr...

An original oil on canvas by noted Scottish artist William Gear which dates to 1981. Entitled early Spring it is a vibrant and fresh art work with lovely colouring. Signed, dated and titled verso. Provenance. William Gear estate. Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 1981. Condition. Oil on canvas, 48 inches by 32 inches. Excellent condition. William Gear (1915-1997). Few British painters have played an active role in the modern abstract movement of post-war Europe. William Gear was the most passionate and committed exception. He continued the tradition of the Edinburgh-Paris axis established by J.D. Fergusson, Samuel Peploe and others, spending vital years between 1947 and 1950 living and working in Paris. Significantly, in recent years, he received the greatest acclaim in France, Germany and the Netherlands. He was born in 1915 in Methil, Fife, into a mining family; the particular landscape of "pitheads, the sea, rocks, castles, trees, storms and poverty" marked his earliest identity with a place and probably remained the most influential to his art. Years later he recalled as a schoolboy visiting the local art gallery in Kirkcaldy and seeing 12 colourful still-lifes by Peploe. Art-history lessons during student years at Edinburgh College of Art, in particular Byzantine classes under David Talbot Rice, also influenced his concern for structure. This had as much to do with the formal language of painting as sheer delight in the medium itself. Gear never missed an opportunity to show people the merits of a well-constructed painting. On a travelling scholarship in 1937, he chose to study with Fernand Leger, described by Gear as "a keystone for me, seldom abstract, rather a degree of abstraction". The Second World War interrupted these formative years and, by 1940, Gear had joined the Royal Corps of Signals. Dispatched to the Middle East, he still had the discipline to paint - mostly works on paper of damaged landscapes - with exhibitions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Cairo as well as Siena and Florence. His naturally robust and tenacious temperament was profoundly affected by visiting Bergen-Belsen, and this certainly influenced the later experiments with the black armature. As the British officer in Celle, working for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Section of the Control Commission, he focused on securing the safety of the Berlin Art Collection in Schloss Celle, and organised an important series of modern art exhibitions, including the rejected work of Karl Otto Gotz...

This superb British Abstract Expressionist oil painting is by noted artist Bernard Kay. It was painted in 1958 and is titled Blue Psalm. It is painted in a palette of blue tones with...

An original oil and spray paint on paper by Denis Bowen who played an important role in the Post War British art movement. This simple yet stunning work dates to 1962. Signed and dated verso. Provenance. Northern collection. Condition. Oil and spray paint on paper. Image size 26 inches by 18 inches and in fine gallery condition. Housed in a simple black gallery frame in excellent condition, 28 inches by 20 inches. Denis Bowen (1921-2006) was a South African artist, gallery director and promoter of abstract and avant-garde art in Britain. He was founder of the New Vision Group and the New Vision Centre Gallery, both of which played an important role in the post-World War II British art scene. Denis Bowen was born on 5 April 1921 in Kimberley, South Africa. His father was Welsh and his mother English. After being orphaned at a young age, Bowen moved to England where he was raised by his aunt in Huddersfield. He enrolled at the Huddersfield School of Art in 1936. After serving in the Navy in World War II, Bowen resumed his art studies at the Royal College of Art in London in 1946. Between 1940 and 1986 Bowen taught art at numerous institutions including: the Kingston Institute of Art, Hammersmith School of Art, Birmingham School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design, the Royal College of Art and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. In 1951 Bowen founded the New Vision Group, which initially emerged from meetings and displays that he organised with his students in 1951. In 1955, Bowen worked alongside Frank Avray Wilson and Halima Nalecz...

This striking exhibited large abstract oil painting is by noted Scottish artist Iain Robertson. Painted in 1998 and exhibited in the same year in London, it was completed just before he moved to Cornwall. Entitled Midsummer verso it is a riot of summery colours and heavy impasto and late twentieth century abstract expressionism. A really uplifting piece of art. Signed and inscribed with title and dated 1998 verso. Provenance. Solo show, 'Art First', London, 1998. Condition. Oil on Canvas. Size 60 x 24 inches Frame. Housed in surround frame, 62 inches by 26 inches and in good condition. Iain Robertson (b. 1955) was born in Cyprus but grew up in Edinburgh before studying art, 1978-1982. In 1993 he worked as Artist In Residence at Grizedale Sculpture Park before relocating to Cornwall where he now lives and works. He has retained studio 7 at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, since 2007. Previously Robertson worked in Montgomery Street Studio, Edinburgh, 1991-1999. He has exhibited widely with numerous solo shows in the UK and Europe. His work is held in public and private collections in Germany, Denmark, Norway, Scotland, England, USA and Hong Kong. His work was included in the ‘Art Now Cornwall’ exhibition at TATE St Ives Spring 2007 and at the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, 2007. The recipient of a number of awards including Scottish Arts Council, British Council and Arts Council, Robertson was the first Scottish recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York, in 1988. Notable exhibitions include, Contemporary Abstract Printmaking, Artists- Rachel Clark, Ian Davenport, Christopher Le Brun, John McLean, Mali Morris...

A rare departure from Daniel Phill's abstract expressionist botanical paintings titled "Pool". Interior scene of an indoor pool painted with his saturated ...

Part of a new collection of painted porcelain panels by Chinese artist Yuan Lin, “Daydreams” is a luminous meditation on the sun's rays. In this painting, Lin...

Artist: Chuck Close Title: Tavern Year of Work: 1960 Medium: Oil on Canvas Signature: Signed & Dated Upper Left Dimensions: framed 31 x 25 unframed 30 x 24 Provenance: Chuck Close, Marjorie Dalton (Dear friend of Chuck), Private Collection. Tavern, is truly a rare find, an original oil on canvas, in compelling blues and grays with a touch of gold and orange. This work reveals more imagery and detail the longer one enjoys it. This painting was created during his years studying in Yale Art School, and draws different qualities to each new viewer similar to a Rorschach. Close's work is in the collections of most of the great international museums of contemporary art, including the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City. and the Tate Modern in London. Artist Bio: Chuck Close – (1940-2021) an American painter, artist and photographer born in Monroe, Washington. Early childhood illnesses including a neuromuscular condition, nephritis and dyslexia were compounded later in life by a condition known as prosopagnosia (face blindness), which may have inspired him to do portraits. Most of his early, large-format portraits are based on photographs, using photorealism or hyperrealism, of family and friends, often other artists. Close often painted abstract portraits of himself and others, which hang in collections internationally. Even though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he continued to paint inspired by artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Close's first solo exhibition, held in 1967 at the University of Massachusetts Art Gallery, Amherst, featured paintings, painted reliefs, and drawings based on photographs of record covers. Being much in the mainstream of pop art, a fragment of Close's portrait of singer-songwriter Paul Simon...

A very good large 20th century Abstract Expressionist oil circa 1975. Stanley Smith (b. 1923) British. oil on board 61cmx 122cm. Gallery frame 65cmx 126c...

An original Oil on canvas by Gradwell. (no prints / images offered beyong ownership, buyer owns copywrite ). A circumspect landscape review on his favourite Greek Island. How time ca...

Abstract female figure on a blue ground. Monogrammed and dated in the lower centre. Josef Steiner (1899 Munich - 1977 ibid.) lived through a Germany in all its facets as an artist. A...