Victor Pasmore

St Ives, Penwith Society of Arts, Penwith Society of Arts: Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, January - July 1960, no.27, with tour to Middlesborough, Nottingham, Cirencester, Eastbourne, Norwich, Newport and Liverpool.

The collage is made up of the various elements having been glued onto brown paper. All of the wrinkles and creases appear to be characteristics of this process and are not the result of later damage or deterioration. The same is true of the gluey residue around some of the collaged elements. However some occasional tiny spots of foxing in the central section may have occurred more recently. Presented mounted and glazed in a simple gilt wood frame with various scuffs and scratches but structurally sound. Please note that the colours are slightly more saturated in the original than they appear in the catalogue photograph.
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It is perhaps difficult to recognise how notable Pasmore’s move towards abstraction was considered to be in the late 1940’s. A leading realist painter, and championed by Kenneth Clark, this move completely changed the public and critical perception of his work, and in many ways is a perfect demonstration of the potential barriers for any artist in Britain with modernising tendencies in the immediate post-war period.

With hindsight, we can now see how the route Pasmore was taking seemed inevitably destined for this point, but when he began to show abstract works in early 1948, the reception was less than enthusiastic. Drawing on influences as diverse as Klee and the mathematical theories of modules, the early compositions have an assured quality that must have then been remarkable. Collage was an important medium for Pasmore right from the beginning, and the use of completely ordinary non-art materials was important, and in the present work, the hand-made quality is immediately evident. No component of the making is disguised, and it is even possible to discern where a discarded diagonal form in the centre right of the work has simply been covered over, removing it from the composition, but leaving the outline of its form to add an almost subliminal twisting element to the whole. 

This lot is sold with a letter from the artist, dated January 1954, regarding the proportions of mounting and framing the piece, and a copy of the 1960 Arts Council catalogue, together with the loan request letter stating that Adrian Heath had suggested the piece be considered for loan.