|
William Gear
was born in Methil, Fife in 1915 and studied at Edinburgh School of Art. On a travelling
scholarship in 1937 he chose to study with Fernand Leger, which began his passionate
commitment to the Modern Abstract Movement of mid 20th Century Europe. During
the War he was a member of the Royal Corp of Signals and spent much of his
time in the Middle East.
Upon being demobbed in 1947 he travelled to Paris where
he established a studio at 13 Quai des Grands Augustins. Within a year he was
exhibiting with two of the city’s pioneering salons and had his first solo
exhibition at Galerie Arc en Ciel. This was followed by inclusion in Cobra
shows in Amsterdam and Copenhagen in 1949, alongside the work of Alechinsky, Appel, Constant and
Corneille, which cemented his affiliation to this form of abstract
expressionism. The same year saw him exhibit in New York
at the Betty Parsons Gallery with Jackson Pollack.
A move back to England in 1950 was due to family reasons but he had secured a series of
exhibitions at Gimpel Fils in London
and was encouraged by the opportunities offered by the Festival of Britain. A
large oil painting on canvas, entitled Autumn Landscape, was awarded one of
the Festival’s Purchase Prizes, which not unsurprisingly given the British reticence
to encompass abstraction caused a furore. Questions were asked in the House
of Commons, a tirade of abuse was forthcoming from the press and it was a
topic of debate on the perennial radio programme, Any Questions. Choosing not
to live in London or to join his fellow abstract artists in St. Ives, Gear moved
to Kent and then became Curator of the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne before moving to the Birmingham
area in 1964, upon being appointed Head of Fine Art at Birmingham College of
Art. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1975 but continue
to encourage artists in the area for the rest of his life.
His work was included in the major Cobra 1948-51 exhibition at
the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris during
1982 as well as in the permanent collection of the Cobra Museum of Modern Art
in Amstelveen, Netherlands. He continued to exhibit around the world for much of his life,
with the Redfern Gallery in London
representing him in this country in his later years. His long overdue
election to the Royal Academy happened in 1995, less than two years before is death in February
1997.
Below are works currently available from the gallery.
|
