Dorothy Mead

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Dorothy Mead (1928 – 12 June 1975) was a British painter, lecturer and member of the

London Group of artists.[1][2]

Early life and education

Mead was born in London, England, and adopted at three months old by a family in Walthamstow. Her mother had a florist shop.[3]

She first met

Borough Polytechnic where she studied under Bomberg from 1945 to 1951. Mead was a founder member of the Borough Group[4] in 1946 together with other pupils of Bomberg including Cliff Holden.[5]

From 1956 until 1959, Mead was a mature student at the

William Coldstream
.

Career

In the

London Group of artists in 1960. The New Statesman, the left-wing magazine singled her out, when critic David Sylvester remarked she "tends to affirm the supremacy of light, as women's painting often does." Holden, her partner said "Dorothy sticks to her principals, but like myself and Bomberg was an outsider".[8]

In 1964, Mead arrived as a lecturer at

Goldsmiths College "like a breath of fresh air" according to pupil and painter Barry Martin. She swept aside the old gentlemanly bohemian and class pretensions that she thought "stubborn preconceptions". Her family saw her "living on the edge" of reality all the time. She worked in a garret studio in Ladbroke Grove, yet went up to Berkeley Square to buy paints. She was described by Dennis Creffield, artist and fellow student of Bomberg, as having an "abundant personality...a great love of art...stylish in appearance." Her daring, precarious act of existential expressionism can be seen in The Acrobat, an exhibition of 1970 at Borough Road Gallery.[9]

Mead was President of the London Group from 1971 to 1973, succeeding

Chelsea College of Art in London between 1962 and 1964. She was a feminist with a principled individualism - she once remarked that if she changed her name to George, she stood a greater chance of selling her work![12]

Exhibitions and works in museum collections

The collection of the

Towner Art Gallery.[3]

In 2005, a retrospective exhibition was held thirty years after her death.[14] Despite the esteem she had earned from fellow artists, it was her first ever solo exhibition.[15]

Shortly following her early death on 12 June 1975, it has been claimed that some of Mead's paintings were stolen from a secure warehouse in Essex, although this is disputed and no evidence to substantiate this has ever been published over the decades.

UK Government probate records establish that Mead died without a will. One of Mead's two sisters, Valerie Long, has been a holder of a number of Mead's works and has been represented by Waterhouse & Dodd for sales and disposals. Many other paintings, where not already in the public domain, have been held and sold from another family member's estate in recent years.

A number of her works are held in the Sarah Rose Collection at London South Bank University[16] and an exhibition of her works alongside those of Edna Mann took place at the Borough Road Gallery there in early 2024.[17]

A list of works

  • Portrait of Dinora Mendelson Oil on board (1947)
  • Looking South Oil on Canvas (1947)
  • Menton Harbour Oil on board (1947)
  • Looking into the distance Oil on canvas (1947-8)
  • Self portrait Oil on board (1953)
  • Landscape Oil on board (Circa 1955)
  • Self portrait Oil on canvas (Circa 1955)
  • Nude study Charcoal on paper (1956)
  • Rooftops Oil on board (1956)
  • Cityscape Oil on canvas (1956)
  • Landscape Charcoal on paper (1957)
  • Portrait study Charcoal on paper (1957)
  • Still life with flowers Charcoal on paper (1957)
  • Self portrait study Charcoal on paper (1958)
  • Still life Oil on canvas (1958)
  • Still life Charcoal on paper (1959)
  • Still life with flowers Charcoal on paper (1959)
  • Life Room Oil on board (1959)
  • Nude study Charcoal on paper (Oct 1959)
  • Reclining with figure Oil on board (1961)
  • Seated figure Oil on canvas (1962)
  • Afternoon Oil on board (1962)
  • Seascape (Holland-on-Sea) Oil on canvas (1966)
  • The taking of Christ I Oil on canvas (1966)
  • The Temptation (after Michelangelo) Oil on canvas (1966)
  • Wheat fields Oil on canvas (1966)
  • The taking of Christ II Oil on canvas (1967)[18]
  • Arcade Oil on canvas (1967)
  • Blue nude Oil on canvas (Circa 1968)
  • Overlooking London Oil on canvas (1969)
  • Abstract composition Oil on canvas (1969)
  • Pieta (after Van Gogh) Oil on canvas (1971)
  • Woman in chair Oil on canvas (Circa 1972)
  • Life class study Etching (ed.20) (Circa 1973)
Work Repository
Light on the sea Government Art Collection
Still life with Aubergine Government Art Collection
Standing figure UCL Art Museum
Study after the Antique UCL Art museum
Still life with Green Pepper UCL Art museum
Flowers Arts Council Collection
Portrait Oil on Canvas 1962 The Sarah Rose Collection, London South Bank University
Vase of Flowers London South Bank Collection
Vase of Flowers [2] London South Bank Collection
Figure Composition after Goya London South Bank Collection
Self-portrait London South Bank Collection
Standing Female Figure London South Bank Collection
Meeting London South Bank Collection
Two Figures London South Bank Collection
Model Resting London South Bank Collection
Self Portrait London South Bank Collection
Hands London South Bank Collection
Reclining Nude London South Bank Collection
Reclining Nude [2] London South Bank Collection
Landscape London South Bank Collection
Acrobat London South Bank Collection
Transvestite London South Bank Collection
Chessboard Oil on Canvas 1958 Tate
Industrial Landscape, Evening British Academy
Seascape, Brighton British Academy
Tombs Oil on board 1947 British Academy
The Pianist II British Academy
Reclining Figure Sarah Rose Collection, London South Bank University.

References

  1. ^ "Dorothy Mead (1928–1975)". artfact.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  2. ^ "Dorothy Mead (British, 1928–1975)". artnet.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-904537-08-1
    .
  4. ^ "The Borough Group". artonlinelimited.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  5. ^ Westbury, Douglas (2004–2011). "The Borough Group". cliffholden.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  6. ^ "Dorothy Mead". Boundary Gallery. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  7. ^ Trewhela, Paul (17 September 2002). "Andrew Forge: Erudite painter and critic". The Independent. Retrieved 17 April 2011.[dead link]
  8. ^ D Sylvester, New Statesman, January 1960,
  9. ^ "None".
  10. ^ "History". The London Group. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  11. ^ Morley College Library Archive, retrieved 22 July 2013
  12. ^ "Talk by Katy Deepwell, Dorothy Mead and the problem of recognition for a woman artist". Borough Road Gallery. 2013. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  13. Tate Gallery
    . Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  14. ^ "Dorothy Mead: Retrospective exhibition". Boundary Gallery. 2005. Archived from the original on 22 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  15. ^ "Exhibition of lost paintings by 'overlooked' female artists". London South Bank University. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Dorothy Mead". Borough Road Collection Archive. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  17. ^ "Exhibition of lost paintings by 'overlooked' female artists". London South Bank University. 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  18. ^ "Dorothy Mead - Works". Waterhouse & Dodd.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dorothy_Mead&oldid=1220537352"