Biography

1914 Born in China, to Scottish parents
1915 Moves to Scotland
1929 Studies at Edinburgh College of Art, alongside William Gear and Wilhelmina Barns-Graham
1933 Receives the Andrew Grant Travelling Scholarship, and studies in Paris under Andre Lhote
1936 Fellowship at Edinburgh College of Art
1938 Marries Adrian Stokes, and move to Little Parc Owles, near St Ives, befriending Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo and Barbara Hepworth
1940 Constructivist period (collage and relief carving)
1945 Returns to painting
1947 After the break-up of her marriage, moves to France with Francis Davison
1950 Moves with Davison to a remote smallholding in Syleham, Suffolk, and paints bold, simplified still life and landscapes
1963 Begins a series of paintings known as 'colour structures'
1969 Starts making 'painted reliefs'
1975 Moves to Southwold
1978 Begins making driftwood constructions
1987 Solo exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, London. Later befriends a young Damien Hirst, who visits her in Southwold
1997 Major retrospective opens at City Art Centre, Edinburgh
2009 Dies on 17th March aged 95

Selected solo exhibitions

1959 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
1967 University of East Anglia
1968 Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
1969 Grabowski Gallery, London
1970 University of Stirling
1972 Basil Jacobs Gallery, London
1976 Compass Gallery, Glasgow
1982 Pier Arts Centre, Stromness
1987 Redfern Gallery, London
1990 Redfern Gallery, London
1992 Gainsborough's House, Sudbury (with Francis Davison)
1994 Redfern Gallery, London
1997 City Art Centre, Edinburgh (and toured to London and Orkney)
2001 Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
2001 Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance
2008 University of East Anglia
2009 Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London
2011 Wills Lane Gallery, St Ives
2015 Pier Arts Centre, Orkney (with Damien Hirst)
2016 Redfern Gallery, London

Selected group exhibitions

1942 London Museum, London, 'New Movements in Art'
1950 Leicester Galleries, London, '18th Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Artists of Fame and Promise'
1952 New Burlington Galleries, London, 'The Mirror and the Square'
1958 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 'International Guggenheim Award'
AIA Gallery, London, 'Joyce Batty, Margaret Mellis, William Crozier'
1962 AIA Gallery, London, 'Ten Painters'
1963, '65 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 'John Moores'
1965 Galleria Numero, Firenze, 'Women's International Open'
1966 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 'Women's International Art Club Exhibition'
1967 David Hume Tower, Glasgow, '1st Edinburgh Open'
1970 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
1973 Kettle's Yard, Cambridge
1977 New Art Centre, London, 'Cornwall 1945-1955'
1978 Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 'Objects'
1982 Castle Museum, Norwich, 'The Women's Art Show 1550-1970'
1985 Tate Gallery, London, 'St Ives 1939-64'
1989 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 'Scottish Art since 1900'
1992 Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, 'Artists from Cornwall'
1993 Tate St Ives, 'Inaugural Exhibition'
1995 Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 'Kettle's Yard Open'
2000 John Innes Centre, Norwich, 'The Scottish Connection'
2011 Tate St Ives, 'Summer 20110'
2015 Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 'Modern Scottish Women: Painters and Sculptors 1885-1965'

Selected public collections

Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London
British Museum, London
City Art Centre, Edinburgh
Contemporary Art Society, London
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Government Art Collection, London
Jerwood Collection
Museums Sheffield
Perth Museums & Art Gallery
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia
Scottish Arts Council
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Southampton City Art Gallery
Tate
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Margaret Mellis

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