Edgar Hubert (1906-1985) was a British abstract painter.

Biography

Chris Stephens describes Edgar Hubert as having produced 'some of this country's most radical abstract paintings of the 1930s'. Born Norman Edgar Hubert on 1 June 1906 in

Billingshurst Billingshurst is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. The village lies on the A29 road (the Roman Stane Street) at its crossroads with the A272, south-west of Horsham and north-east of Pulboro ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, he spent his boyhood in

Clevedon, Somerset Clevedon (, ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, England. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 in 2019. It lies along the Severn Estuary, a ...

. He studied art at the Reading School of Art (now

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

) and, from 1926 to 1929, at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

was one of his tutors at the Slade and he shared rooms with William Townsend (who wrote of Hubert in his journals and other papers) during his time there. In the late 1930s, due to ill health, Hubert left London to live with his family in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. He was deeply affected by the deaths, between 1936 and 1947, of his father and two brothers. He continued to live with his mother until her death in about 1960. He then moved to

Seaford, East Sussex Seaford is a town in East Sussex, England, east of Newhaven, East Sussex, Newhaven and west of Eastbourne.OS Explorer map Eastbourne and Beachy Head Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. I ...

. Hubert's lifelong shyness and introversion contributed to a neglect of his work in histories of twentieth century

British art The art of the United Kingdom refers to all forms of visual art in or associated with the country since the formation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 and encompasses English art, Scottish art, Welsh art and Irish art, and forms part ...

. When his close friend and colleague Geoffrey Tibble died in 1952, Hubert became reclusive and withdrew from the art world. Hubert continued to paint until shortly before his death on 25 January 1985.

Style

Hubert's early work was figurative, developing into both abstract and semi-figurative styles. Between 1933 and 1936, Hubert was a significant figure in the

Objective Abstraction Objective abstraction was a British art group or movement c. 1933–1936, taking its name from the "Objective Abstractions" exhibition of 1934. It is a misnomer in the sense that a minority of the artists in the exhibition were at that time engaged ...

movement with Graham Bell,

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

, Rodrigo Moynihan and Geoffrey Tibble. Hubert's 'Painting 1935-6' at the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

is from this period. Many of the artists involved in

went on to be part of the realist

Euston Road School The Euston Road School is a term applied to a group of English painters, active either as staff or students at the School of Drawing and Painting in London between 1937 and 1939. The School opened in October 1937 at premises in Fitzroy Street, Lo ...

but Hubert continued to work in both abstract and semi-figurative styles. Influenced by

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

and

geometric abstraction Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popu ...

, his wartime paintings were of post-

Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...

figures and abstractions of geometrical linear patterns. His later paintings included more organic forms, together with geometric patterns (several in black and white).

Exhibitions

In 1930, Hubert exhibited in the ''First Exhibition of the Young Painters Society'',

New Burlington Galleries The New Burlington Galleries was an art gallery at 5 Burlington Gardens, Mayfair, London. From 11 June to 4 July 1936, they held the ''International Surrealist Exhibition'', the first full exhibition of surrealist art in the UK. From 7 June to 2 ...

. Between 1931 and 1947, Hubert regularly exhibited with

the London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

. In 1942 his work was shown at the

Lefevre Gallery The Lefevre Gallery (or The Lefevre Galleries) was an art gallery in London, England, operated by Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd. The gallery was opened at 1a, King Street, St James's, in 1926, when rival art dealers Alexander Reid and Ernest Lefe ...

, in 1946 at the London Gallery and the

Anglo-French Art Centre The Anglo-French Art Centre (or Anglo-French Art School, previously the St John's Wood Art School, was an art school at 29 Elm Tree Road in St John's Wood, north London, England. The centre was founded in 1946 by Alfred Rozelaar Green, who stu ...

, and in 1948 and 1953 at the Mayor Gallery. He had one-person exhibitions at the Mayor Gallery in 1946 and in 1948. Also in 1948, with encouragement from

Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...

, Hubert submitted his work to the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

(ICA) exhibition ''40 Years of Modern Art 1907-1947''. In 1958, the ICA held a one-person exhibition ''Paintings by Edgar Hubert''. In Paris, his work was shown at the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

's ''La Jeune Peinture en Grande Bretagne'' (1948) and the

Salon des Réalités Nouvelles The Salon des Réalités Nouvelles is an association of artists and an art exhibition in Paris, focusing on abstract art. A first exhibition with the name was held in 1939 in Galerie Charpentier, organised by Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Nell ...

(1949). Hubert was included in the exhibition ''British Art and the Modern Movement 1930-40'' held by the

National Museum of Wales Cardiff National Museum Cardiff (), formerly known as the National Museum of Wales, is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Wels ...

in 1962. The

Fine Art Society The Fine Art Society is a gallery based in both London and in Edinburgh's New Town (originally Bourne Fine Art, established 1978). The New Bond Street, London gallery closed its doors in August 2018 after being occupied by The Fine Art Society ...

exhibition ''Edgar Hubert 1906-1985'' was held in 2005, reviving interest in his work. In 2014, one of Hubert's works was acquired by the

Jerwood Foundation Jerwood Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation in the United Kingdom. In 1999 the Jerwood Foundation established the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, a Charitable organization, registered charity under English law. History The Jerwood F ...

for the Jerwood Collection of 20th and 21st century British art.

References

External links

Edgar Hubert

Works by Edgar Hubert
held by the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

Photograph of Edgar Hubert

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubert, Edgar 1906 births 1985 deaths 20th-century English painters English male painters English modern painters British abstract painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art People from Billingshurst 20th-century English male artists