William Gear

Red Idol - British 50's art abstract oil painting - Modernist COBRA - provenance

1959

This vibrant British abstract is by noted artist Peter L Field. Painted circa 1960, the composition in reds has relief sculptural impasto. The red works ...

This superb British Abstract Expressionist oil painting on board is by noted artist Bernard Kay. It was painted in London in 1955. This striking painting is a mix of shades of black ...

This superb Abstract Expressionist Scottish oil painting is by noted artist William Gear. It was painted in 1957 and is entitled Black/Red Figure no. 2. This abstract composition is ...

This stunning Scottish Abstract oil painting is by much noted artist William Gear. It was painted in 1949, not long after Gear de mobbed in 1947, moved to Paris and established a one room studio at 13 Quai des Grands Augustins, hence the title Interieur, Forme Blanche. At the same time, Gear was introduced to CoBrA, allowing him to exhibit in important early CoBrA shows in Copenhagen and in Amsterdam in 1949. The same year saw an exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, alongside Jackson Pollock. Gear remained in Paris until the early fifties. This bold abstract mixes blocks of solid colour with more geometric lines and is an excellent and important example of his period in Paris. Signed and dated '49 lower left. Provenance: Private London collection. Condition. Oil on canvas, 24 inches by 20 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed in a wooded white painted frame, 34 inches by 30 inches and in good condition. 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...

RHYTHMIC RED Size: 54 x 49 cm (including frame) Oil on canvas An engaging and dynamic mid-century abstract composition, executed in oil onto canvas and dated 1965. Abstract in natu...

Amitava Dhar - Untitled Oil on Canvas 60 x 48 inches, 2000 ( Unframed & Delivered ) Amitava Dhar graduated from Government College of Arts & Crafts, Kolkata, following which he did...

Vintage American modernist abstract painting. Oil on board. Framed.

Very nicely painted mid century modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on board. Signed. Image size, 26H by 19L.