Jeffrey Steele (artist)
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Jeffrey Steele (1931–2021) was an abstract painter and founder of the Systems Group.
In Paris (1959) he encountered the work of artists working in the mode of
His work has been exhibited in London, Paris, New York, Milan, the
After he had gained a reputation as a practising artist in the early 1960s Steele was accepted by the college authorities with which he had previously tussled and he began lecturing in fine art in Cardiff,
He was a member of the Portsmouth Sinfonia experimental orchestra organised by Gavin Bryars for BA students and staff in Fine Art at Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1970, playing trombone.[1] He can be heard on the BA show invitation 45rpm of the William Tell Overture.
Early life to 1960
Jeffrey Steele was born on 3 July 1931 in
In 1948 Steele enrolled at
As a
During the 1950s he maintained a studio in Cardiff and experimented with representational styles.
During the 1950s Steele worked
Steele had been studying
In 1959 he won a French government scholarship to study in Paris, initially for three months. There he visited the show "Antagonismes" at the musée des Arts décoratifs, and saw the work of Auguste Herbin (1882–1960), Max Bill, Richard Paul Lohse (1902–1988), the Venezuelan Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005) and, especially influential for Steele, Victor Vasarely.[3] He determined to start afresh and when he returned to Cardiff he destroyed all figurative work in his possession.
He started with what could not be eliminated while still being an artist making pictures: the two essentials, first a blank white (when primed) canvas, and second, an element (or elements) of black, these two (figure and ground) interacting with each other. From this simplest possible binary situation he built up a new practice, beginning with depictions of ovoid forms.
Principles and aims
Each work is underlaid by its own set of mathematic relationships that, once chosen intuitively, determines the elements depicted to produce a unified, harmonious whole, which is independent of any outside object (as in figurative art) or the artist's emotions (as in Abstract Expressionism). Typically, equal vertical and horizontal divisions of the canvas are cut through with intersecting diagonals, and new lines taken from intersections, to produce a system of superimposed grids or nets. On these are built the shapes, lines, curves, blocks of colour or spatial divisions that form the elements of the picture. The elements are repeated but subject to the effects of incremental changes according to logical progressions. They interact and interpenetrate to allow the viewer to make new, multiple connections and see new patterns. As in a
While modern in their pure abstraction, purged of references to the world outside the picture, Steele's works, in their systems of proportion, balance and measurement, in their use of geometric forms (particularly circles and polygons such as triangles and squares), and in their strong contrasts of light and dark (chiaroscuro) in their composition, are prefigured by much older art and architecture, and have a timeless quality.[8] Steele's aim is visual experimentation and investigation, to answer questions such as "what would that look like?", a journey in collaboration with the viewer on the basis of equal status. The result, while being potentially satisfying, interesting and appealing for a viewer, is not primarily intended to provide aesthetic pleasure and sensory enjoyment ("I like that"), or to elicit an emotionally sympathetic response or admiration for the artist's skill or insight ("That's good"), or to satisfy the art market. The artist is kept firmly in the background.[9]
In a statement concerning his work Steele proposes "to abolish as far as possible subjective, contingent and random factors in favour of a principle of necessity; to develop a pictorial context conforming to this principle and to render this principle as intelligible as possible".[10]
Op art in the 1960s
Steele's painting Baroque Experiment – Fred Maddox (1962/63) featured prominently in a
Steele was a member of 56 Group Wales from 1963 to 1974, and a life / honorary member after 1974.[15]
Systems Group (1970)
Steele was the founder of the Systems Group, together with Malcolm Hughes in 1970. The group included Michael Kidner, Peter Sedgley, Gillian Wise, Peter Lowe, Colin Jones, David Saunders, Jean Spencer, John Ernest, Richard Allen and others.
The group arose through an exhibition of nine artists, "Systeemi-System", organised by Steele and his then wife, the textile designer Arja Nenonen (1936–2011), at the
The Arts Council of Great Britain put on a touring exhibition of 15 artists called "Constructive Context" in 1978–9, curated by Stephen Bann, which brought together members of the former Systems group, and Gillian Wise organised a constructivist section in the 1978 Hayward annual exhibition.
Neglect in the UK, 1980s and 1990s
Between the two groups of Systems-related exhibitions (in the 1970s and the revival of interest in 2005–2008), Steele and other former members of the group and related artists continued to exhibit widely in continental Europe, eastern Europe and Russia, and had works bought for public collections there.
Revival of interest, 2005-08
After the "Constructive Context" exhibition of 1978-79 it was not until 2005 that a similar exhibition was held. This was at Southampton City Art Gallery, called "Elements of Abstraction: Space, Line and Interval in Modern British Art", curated by Professor Brandon Taylor and Dr Alan Fowler of Winchester School of Art. This was followed by "Towards a Rational Aesthetic: Constructive Art in Post-war Britain" at the Osborne Samuel Gallery in London in 2007 and "A Rational Aesthetic", a second exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2008. All of these featured the work of Steele and like-minded artists. The 2008 show also featured the work of Anthony Hill (1930–) and Kenneth Martin (1905–1984), who along with his wife, Mary Martin (1907–69), and Victor Pasmore (1908–98) was a leading figure in the revival of Constructivism in Britain and America in the 1940s, forerunners of the Systems group.
Personal life
Steele was married twice, to Glenda Reynolds with whom he had two children, Simon (born 1958) and Tamara (born 1959), and to the Finnish artist-weaver Arja Nenonen. After his second marriage ended he had a relationship with the artist Judy Clark, with whom he had a daughter, the artist Clara Clark.[1]
Steele was interviewed extensively by the researcher Cathy Courtney for the Artists' Lives section of the British Library's National Life Stories project. The British Library also holds a collection of video recordings made by Steele in his home and studio between 1997 and 2011.[21]
Steele lived and worked in Southsea, Hampshire.[1] He died on 21 June 2021.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d "Jeffrey Steele biography". Jeffrey Steele artist. Retrieved 22 January 2016.[self-published source]
- ^ a b c d Basciano, Oliver (15 July 2021). "Jeffrey Steele obituary". The Guardian. London.
- ^ a b Blannin, Katrina (n.d.). "Interview with Jeffrey Steele". Turps Banana (11).
- ^ Central Board for Conscientious Objectors, The Objector, June 1953
- ^ South Wales Echo, 2 April 1953, 1-2–3 May 1953
- ^ "Cardiff City Fathers Are Appeased". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, NSW, Australia. 4 May 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
- ^ a b Quoted in Gloria Carnevali's essay for the exhibition catalogue for "Jeffrey Steele 1960–1990", at the Clare Hall Gallery, Cambridge, October 1992.
- ^ a b c Dr Alan Fowler, "The Systems Group and its Constructive Context", in the catalogue for "A Rational Aesthetic" at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2008.
- ^ Steele, "What do you Expect from the Viewer?", "A Rational Aesthetic", in the catalogue for "A Rational Aesthetic" at Southampton City Art Gallery in 2008.
- Palazzo Realein Milan, 1983.
- OCLC 644787547. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
- ^ Brian De Palma (director) (1966). The Responsive Eye (Motion picture). Event occurs at 07:54.
- ^ Walker Gallery website, retrieved 27 January 2014. Archived 3 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Fowler, "Towards a Rational Aesthetic", exhibition catalogue, 2007
- ISBN 978-0-9563602-1-2.
- ^ Fowler, "Constructive and Systems Art in Britain after the Second World War", in the catalogue for "Elements of Abstraction: Space Space, Line & Interval in Modern British Art", at Southampton City Art Gallery, September 2005.
- ^ Fowler, PhD thesis, "Constructivist Art in Britain: 1913–2005, Southampton University, 2006.
- ^ "Group Proceedings" archive, private collection, Iona Singh, Gary Tedman, Burgundy, France.
- ^ Tedman, G. Aesthetics & Alienation, Zero Books, 2012.
- ^ Singh, Iona, Color Facture Art & Design, Artistic Technique and the Precisions of Human Perception, Zero Books, 2012.
- ^ "Jeffrey Steele interviewed by Cathy Courtney". British Library. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
Jeffrey Steele has deposited a collection of 37 VHS-C cassettes made in his home and studio in Portsmouth between August 1997 and July 2011. The recordings focus on his studio environment and various works completed and in-progress, as well as items from his extensive archive. The collection is catalogued under reference C1452.
External links
- jeffreysteele.co.uk: Website devoted to the artist and his work.
- Lloyd, David W. J. (6 September 2016). "Artist Jeffrey Steele And His Painting 'Christ Carrying The Cross'". Then Was...
- 19 artworks by or after Jeffrey Steele at the Art UK site: Some of Steele's work in public collections in the UK
- Brian De Palma (director) (1966). The Responsive Eye (Motion picture). Event occurs at 07:54. Interview with Steele on the opening night of The Responsive Eye exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1965.
- Portraits of Jeffrey Steele at the National Portrait Gallery, London