Margaret Mellis
Margaret Nairne Mellis | |
---|---|
Swatow, China | |
Died | 17 March 2009 | (aged 95)
Nationality | Scottish |
Education | Edinburgh College of Art |
Known for | Abstract art |
Spouses |
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Margaret Nairne Mellis (22 January 1914 – 17 March 2009) was a
Life
Mellis was born in Wukingfu (Wujingfu),
Abandoning an initial interest in music, she studied at
Looking for a refuge from London before the
Other visitors included Victor Pasmore, Graham Sutherland, William Coldstream, Julian Trevelyan and Peter Lanyon, and later a second wave including Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Bryan Wynter.[1]
Mellis left the St Ives area in 1946 after the breakdown of her marriage. Mellis and Stokes divorced in 1946, and he subsequently married her younger sister the ceramic artist
Francis Davison died from a brain tumour in 1984. Mellis was survived by her son, three grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.[1]
Art
Mellis was renowned throughout her career as a colourist. While in St Ives under the influence of Nicholson she began to work in relief and collage, most notably Collage with Red Triangle II (1940) which was initially a gift for Naum Gabo and is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.[6][7]
The breakdown of her first marriage caused her to reject abstraction for a period, returning to representational painting. However, works from the mid-1950s moved away from direct representation, simplifying still life and landscapes to flattened areas of pure colour. By the 1970s work was almost totally abstract and focused on geometric shape and colour.[8]
In 1980 Mellis started making constructions out of
She exhibited infrequently through much of her life, and Hirst considers that her work has been unduly neglected.
In 2023 her work was included in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.[14]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins, Ian (21 March 2009). "Obituary: Margaret Mellis". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Pete Davies (24 March 2009). "Margaret Mellis: Painter and maker of driftwood collages". The Independent. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Margaret Mellis". The Telegraph. 22 March 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
- ^ Lambirth, Andrew (2010). Margaret Mellis. Lund Humphries.
- ^ a b Bird, Michael (2008). The Transformed Total: Margaret Mellis's Constructions. Austin Desmond Fine Art.
- ^ "Collage with Red Triangle, II - Mellis, Margaret - V&A Search the Collections". collections.vam.ac.uk. Retrieved 20 November 2018.
- ^ Batchelor, David; Jeffries, Ian (2001). Margaret Mellis. Austin Desmond Fine Art.
- ^ Hirst, Damien (2001). Where the Land meets the Sea. Austin Desmond Fine Art.
- ^ "Tate St Ives Summer Exhibition 2011". Tate St Ives. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Margaret Mellis 1914–2009". Tate Collection. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Collage with Red Triangle, II". V&A Images. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Margaret Mellis". National Galleries Scotland. Retrieved 7 March 2012.
- ^ "Action, Gesture, Paint". Whitechapel Gallery. Retrieved 20 April 2023.