About this lot
Description
§ Victor Pasmore CH, CBE (1908-1998) Spiral Motifsigned with initials and dated 51 (lower right); numbered 16/20linocut on Japanese paper, printed by White Ink Studio, London, 1960s32 x 40cmProvenance:With Mercury Gallery, London, where acquired in March 1996Literature:Illustrated; Frances Carey & Antony Griffiths, Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960, BMP 1990, cat no.191In the summer of 1950, upon the invitation of Ben Nicholson, Victor Pasmore swapped the pewter skies of central London for the sun-flashed shores and the glistering waters of St Ives, Cornwall. Having only recently transitioned from figurative painting into abstraction, Pasmore spent the season drawing the rhythmic coiling and crashing Atlantic waves from the sands of Porthmeor beach. The culmination of his trip to Cornwall was a series of diagrammatic spiral and linear motifs, as demonstrated by the present lot. These studies became the basis for a series of landscape-driven abstract oils and drawings that were the subject of a major exhibition at the Redfern Gallery towards the end of 1950.Whilst none of the motifs created during his trip to St Ives, and in the subsequent year, were ever published in proper editions, in the 1960s, the present lot was reproduced, and retroactively dated ‘51’, by Pasmore in partnership with White Ink Ltd.Not examined out of the frame, appears to be adhered to the backboard at four corners. Sheet is uniformly toned commensurate with age, some very light scattered foxing throughout, but overall in nice, presentable condition
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