William Gear RA
William Gear with Peter Lanyon and Louis le Brocquy, 1952 Photo - Ambassador Magazine">
Biography |
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| 1915 | Born in Fife, Scotland |
| 1932-36 | Attended Edinburgh College of Art |
| 1937 | Awarded a year's travelling scholarship |
| 1939 | Showed in the first exhibition in Scotland of Surrealist Art |
| 1940 | Called up to fight in World War II |
| 1941 | Exhibited in Jerusalem, Florence, Hamburg, Tel Aviv, Siena, Celle, Hanover |
| 1945 | Worked as a Monuments Man |
| 1947-50 | Settled in Paris |
| 1949 | Exhibited with CoBrA; married Charlotte Chertok; had their son, David; joint exhibition with Jackson Pollock |
| 1950 | Met William Scott in Brittany; moved to Buckinghamshire for six months; painted 'Autumn Landscape' |
| 1951 | Second son, Robert, born; Arts Council bought 'Autumn Landscape' from the Festival of Britain |
| 1952 | Represented Britain at the Sao Paulo Bienale |
| 1953 | Exhibited silkscreens at the Redfern Gallery; moved to Kent; elected member of the London Group |
| 1954 | São Paulo Bienale (with others); retrospective at the South London Gallery with Hitchens |
| 1957 | Joint exhibition with Sandra Blow at Saidenberg Gallery, New York |
| 1958-64 | Appointed curator of Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne |
| 1960 | Elected Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters; showed the first abstract paintings in the Royal Academy's 'Summer Exhibition' |
| 1961 | Tate purchased 'Interior' and 'Figure in a Landscape' |
| 1964 | Made Head of Fine Arts at Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts |
| 1966 | Elected Honorary Member of Royal Birmingham Society of Artists; guest lecturer at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and the University of Western Australia, Perth |
| 1967 | Received David Cargill Award from the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts |
| 1975 | Awarded Lorne Fellowship; retired from teaching |
| 1976-1997 | Various retrospective exhibitions (as well as those of the CoBrA group) |
| 1994 | Awarded Honorary Doctorate by University of Central England, and Sir Herbert Baker Scholarship by the Royal Academy |
| 1995 | Made a Senior Royal Academician |
| 1997 | Received the Leporello prize; dies days before a major retrospective at the Redfern Gallery |
Selected Solo and Joint Exhibitions |
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| 1944 | Galleria Michelangelo, Florence |
| 1947 | Junge Kunst, Hamburg |
| 1948 | Gimpel Fils, London |
| Galerie Arc-en-Ciel, Paris | |
| 1949 | Betty Parsons Gallery, New York (with Jackson Pollock) |
| 1951 | Gimpel Fils, London |
| 1954 | South London Art Gallery (with Ivon Hitchens) |
| 1957 | Saidenberg Gallery, New York (with Sandra Blow) |
| 1962 | Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne (touring retrospective) |
| 1966 | Commonwealth Institute Gallery (with Alan Davie) |
| 1969 | Bedford House, Belfast (touring retrospective) |
| 1976 | RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (retrospective 1947-76) |
| 1982 | Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (Retrospective) |
| 1987 | Redfern Gallery, London 'CoBrA Years 1948–51' |
| 1988 | Galerie Marcel Fleiss, Paris 'CoBrA Abstractions 1946–49' |
| Galerie Karl & Faber, Munich 'Works from the Artist's Studio' | |
| 1989 | Galerie von Loeper, Hamburg |
| 1990 | Kunsthandel Leeman, Amsterdam (with Stephen Gilbert) |
| 1995 | Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh (with Patrick Heron) |
| 1997 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Golden Jubilee Exhibition' |
| 2003/04 | Redfern Gallery, London 'William Gear 1915-1997' (retrospective) |
| 2006 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Paintings from the 1950s' |
| 2011 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Paintings from the 1960s' |
| 2015 | Redfern Gallery, London 'A Centenary Exhibition' |
| Towner, Eastbourne, and toured to City Art Centre, Edinburgh 'The painter that Britain forgot' | |
Selected group exhibitions |
|
| 1934 | Royal Scottish Academy (also with the Society of Scottish Artists) |
| 1939 | Gladstone's Land Gallery, Edinburgh 'Inaugural Exhibition' (with the New Era Group) |
| 1941 | Cabinet of Arts, Jerusalem |
| 1943 | Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv |
| 1946 | Bund Bilender Künstler, Herrenhausen Orangerie, Hanover 'Kunst Ausstellung' |
| 1948 | La Galerie des Deux Iles, Paris 'Un Groupe International de Peintres Non-figuratifs' |
| Galerie Egon Gunther, Mannheim '4 Maler aus Paris' | |
| 1949 | 'Artistes Anglais Contemporains' (British Council touring exhibition of France) |
| Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam 'Exposition Internationale d’Art Experimental' (CoBrA), | |
| Salon Höst, Copenhagen 'Høstudstillingen' (CoBrA) | |
| 1950 | I.C.A., London 'Contemporary British Art' |
| 1951 | I.C.A., London 'Ten Decades: A Review of British Taste 1851–1951' |
| Gimpel Fils, London 'British Abstract Art' | |
| '60 Paintings for ’51' (Arts Council Festival of Britain touring exhibition) | |
| 1952 | Tate Gallery, London '17 Collectors' (Contemporary Art Society) |
| Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris 'La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine' | |
| 'Artists International Association Touring Exhibition' (South Australia) | |
| 'Five Contemporary British Painters' (British Council touring exhibition of Canada) | |
| Metropolitan Museum, Tokyo 'First International Art Exhibition' | |
| 1953 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Coronation Exhibition of Contemporary British Paintings' |
| 'Tio Engelska Målare' (British Council touring exhibition of Sweden) | |
| 'The Mirror and the Square' (Artist's International Association touring exhibition) | |
| 2nd São Paulo Bienal, Brazil (British Council) | |
| 1954 | 27th Venice Biennale |
| Guildhall Art Gallery, London 'Trends in British Art 1900-1954' | |
| 1955 | I.C.A., London '10 Years of English Landscape Painting' |
| Alteneo de Valencia, Venezuela 'Exposicion Internacionale de Pintura' | |
| 1956 | Tate Gallery, London 'The Seasons' (Contemporary Art Society) |
| 'Britisk Kunst 1900–1955' (British Council touring exhibition to Denmark and Norway) | |
| Silberman Galleries, New York 'Contemporary British Art' | |
| I.C.A., London 'Ten Years of English Landscape Painting, 1945-55' (selected by Andrew Forge) | |
| 1957 | Redfern Gallery, London 'Metavisual Tachiste Abstract: Painting in England Today' |
| 1958 | Tate Gallery, London 'The Religious Theme' (Contemporary Art Society) |
| 1959 | Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 'The Graven Image' |
| 'Recent Paintings: Seven British Artists' (British Council touring exhibition of Australia) | |
| 1961 | 'Six British Artists' (British Council touring exhibition of East Africa) |
| 1962 | Kursaal, Ostend 'Prix Europe de Peinture' |
| 1963 | San Francisco Museum of Art 'British Art Today' (touring USA) |
| 1964 | Tate Gallery, London 'London Group Jubilee Exhibition 1914–64' |
| 1968 | 'Three Centuries of Scottish Painting' (National Gallery of Canada touring exhibition) |
| 1969 | Gimpel Gallery, New York 'Collectors Choice' |
| 1972 | Annely Juda Fine Art, London 'The Non-Objective World 1939–1955' (toured to Basel and Milan), |
| 1977 | Royal Academy of Arts, London 'British Painting 1952–77' |
| 1979 | Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 'British Drawings since 1945' |
| 1982 | 'British Watercolours and Drawings' (British Council touring exhibition of China) |
| Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris 'CoBrA 1948 – 1951' (touring to Chalon and Rennes) | |
| 1984 | V&A Museum, London 'British Art and Design' |
| 1986 | The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 'The Modern Spirit in Scottish Painting' |
| Konsthall, Malmö 'Cobra' (and in various other locations in the years 1986-2003) | |
| 1988 | Austin/Desmond Gallery, London 'Post-War British Abstract Art' |
| 1989 | Tate Gallery, London 'Portrait of the Artist' |
| SNGMA, Edinburgh 'Scottish Art since 1900' | |
| 1990 | British Museum, London 'Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-60' |
| Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow 'The 20th-Century Scottish Print' | |
| 1991 | Royal West of England Academy, Bristol 'Scottish Art in the 20th Century' |
| 1993 | Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh 'The Line of Tradition' |
| 1994 | 'Out of Print: British Printmaking 1946–1976' (British Council touring exhibition of Europe and USA) |
| 1995 | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery 'William Gear: Past and Present Friends' |
| 1997 | Aberdeen Art Gallery 'William Gear and CoBrA', (touring to Eastbourne, Edinburgh and Ayr) |
| 2002 | Barbican Art Galleries, London 'Transition - The London Art Scene in the Fifties' (curated by Martin Harrison) |
| 2003 | 'Cobra' (National Touring Exhibition organised by the Hayward Gallery for the Arts Council of England) |
Selected collections |
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| Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museum | |
| Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA | |
| Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London | |
| Birmingham Museums Trust | |
| British Council Collection, London | |
| British Museum, London | |
| City Art Centre, Edinburgh | |
| Cincinatti Art Museum | |
| Government Art Collection, London | |
| Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | |
| The Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art | |
| Jerwood Collection | |
| Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery | |
| Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne | |
| National Gallery of Australia, Canberra | |
| National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa | |
| National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney | |
| National Galleries of Scotland | |
| Pallant House Gallery, Chichester | |
| Royal Academy of Arts, London | |
| Royal Birmingham Society of Artists | |
| Southampton City Art Gallery | |
| Tate | |
| Tel Aviv Museum of Art | |
| Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne | |
| Victoria & Albert Museum, London | |
| Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester | |
