Victor Pasmore

Arthur Tooth and Sons, London
Private Collection, U.S.A., from whom acquired by the present owners, October 1985

 

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, Critic's Choice: David Sylvester, September - October 1958, cat. no.8.

The panel is intentionally uneven along the edges and appears in good overall condition. The paint surface is slightly dirty but appears in good overall condition. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals some faint lines of fluorescence but these appear old and in the artist's hand. Mounted against a white painted background in a wooden frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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When Pasmore began to incorporate a level of abstraction in his Hammersmith paintings in 1947-48, the sense of curvilinear forms underpinning the overall subject is paramount, seen perhaps at its most extreme in The Gardens of Hammersmith (3) (B&L 133). With Pasmore's growing interest in abstraction, such curved and spiralling forms become more noticeable, such as in the important The Snowstorm: Spiral Motif in Black & White (Arts Council Collection) of 1950-51. Although the next stage of his abstraction follows a path much concerned with geometric construction, Pasmore's interest in these forms was persistent, and we see them reappear time and again, most notably in the 1957-60 period where they are removed from their earlier position as forms used to denote a particular effect and become entirely self-contained. Many of the paintings in this group were returned to by the artist over a long period of time, in some cases over a decade, and provide an interesting insight into the apparently contradictory relationship between the language of geometric forms used and the organic and intuitive manner in which the artist used them to create the desired result.  

The present work is amongst the earliest of this group of paintings, and like many of them seems to have undergone a number of revisions. The image illustrated in the 1958 Tooth catalogue is marked as being in its first state, and appears to be prior to the addition of the white heightening on the curved forms.