Gillian Wise
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Gillian Mary Wise (16 February 1936 – 11 April 2020) was a British artist devoted to the application of concepts of
rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ab ...
and
aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...
order to
abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...
s and
relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...
s. Between 1972 and 1990 she was known as Gillian Wise Ciobotaru.


Early life and education

Wise was born at
Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...
in London to Arthur, a timber merchant, and Elsie, née Holden, a milliner. She studied art at the
Wimbledon College of Art Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college specialises in theatre, screen and performance arts and design ...
from 1954 to 1957 and then at the
Central School of Arts and Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a art school, school of fine arts, fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School ...
during 1959.


Career

Before she graduated, Wise was already showing works with a group of Constructionist artists, exhibiting at the 1957 Young Contemporaries exhibition at the Royal British Artists gallery and in the New Vision Centre's abstract show in 1958. In 1961 she became the youngest member of the Constructionist group, centred on
Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was bo ...
and including
Adrian Heath Adrian Paul Heath (born 11 January 1961) is an English football manager and former player. He most recently served as head coach of Major League Soccer club Minnesota United until October 2023. As a player, he is best known for his six season ...
,
John Ernest John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London, England, where he lived and w ...
, Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin, and
Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in ''South Pacific (musica ...
. In the 1960s her work became much more widely shown with exhibitions in London (at the Drian and Axiom galleries, 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 ...
and 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 ...
), in Chicago, and at the 1965 Tokyo Biennale and the 1969 Nuremberg Biennale. In 1968, she gained a
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...
Fellowship award to study in Prague, followed in 1969 by a
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 ...
scholarship to study Russian constructivism in
Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
. In Leningrad she met and married an architect, Adrian Ciobotaru. In the same year she exhibited with a group of British artists in an exhibition of systems-based abstraction in Finland, followed in 1970 by her joining many of the same artists in the newly formed Systems Group and quitting the Constructionist group. Her fellow artists in that group included Jeffrey Steele, Peter Lowe, Malcolm Hughes, Jean Spencer, Michael Kidner, John Ernest, and David Saunders. She exhibited with the group in Matrix at the
Arnolfini Gallery Arnolfini is an international arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, artist's performance, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a ...
in Bristol in 1970, and then in 1972, at the
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...
in the
Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...
's Systems exhibition. The Arts Council also commissioned her to curate the Constructivist section of the 1978 Hayward Annual, followed in the same year by her inclusion in the Arts Council's Constructive Context show. Wise taught at the
Chelsea College of Art and Design Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. It offers further and higher education courses in fine art, graphic design, interior design, prod ...
and
Central Saint Martins Central Saint Martins is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of short ...
School of Art between 1971 and 1974, and later spent several years teaching and studying in the US after being elected in 1981 as a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Visual Studies at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
. She also had appointments as Visiting Artist and Visiting Scholar at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
. While in the USA she was twice nominated in the UK as an Royal Academy member, her nominees including the architects
Ernő Goldfinger Ernő Goldfinger (11 September 1902 – 15 November 1987) was a Hungarian-born British architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1930s, and became a key member of the modernist architecture, Modernist architectur ...
,
Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British-Italian architect noted for his modernist and constructivist designs in high-tech architecture. He was the founder at Rogers Stirk Harbour + ...
, and
Hugh Casson Sir Hugh Maxwell Casson (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) was a British architect, also active as an interior designer, an artist, and a writer and broadcaster on twentieth-century design. He was the director of architecture for the 1951 Fest ...
, together, among others, with the artists
Sandra Blow Sandra Betty Blow (14 September 1925 – 22 August 2006) was an English abstract painter and one of the pioneers of the British abstract movement of the 1950s. Blow's works are characteristically large scale, colourful abstract collages made f ...
, William Scott, and Peter Blake. Her absence in the US and later Paris prevented her election but the range and status of her nominees is evidence of the high regard for the quality and integrity of her work held by many leading artists and architects. Early in the 1980s, Wise was commissioned by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, the architects of the
Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London, England, and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings a ...
in London, to design the large-scale mural construction, known as ''The Alice Walls'', in the stairwell to the main cinema. This work incorporates mirrors — a feature along with glass prisms which she has used in a number of her reliefs as a way of introducing effects of light which add to the perceptual interest of the abstract. This followed several other architectural commissions, including a screen for the International Union of Architects Congress (1961), a wall screen for the Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth II (1968), and wall reliefs for Nottingham University Hospital (1973), for the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
(1980), and a relief panel for Unilever House in London in 1982.


Later life and death

Living in France for much of her later career, Wise's exhibitions in the UK became infrequent in the 1990s, although she was shown several times in Paris during this decade and, in 1995, in Chicago. In the 2000s, her work has been included in group exhibitions in the Osborne Samuel and Poussin galleries in London, at the British Art Fair, and in two exhibitions of British abstract and systems-based art at the
Southampton City Art Gallery The Southampton City Art Gallery is an art gallery in Southampton, southern England. It is located in the Civic Centre on Commercial Road. The gallery opened in 1939 with much of the initial funding from the gallery coming from two bequests, o ...
. In 2010, her work was included along with that of Victor Pasmore, Anthony Hill, John Ernest, and
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a female given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religion * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blesse ...
and Kenneth Martin in
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...
's year-long display, ''Construction England''. In 2012 she visited Novosbirsk in Siberia to submit her eventually unsuccessful entry in an open international competition for a memorial to the Soviet artist and designer El Lissitzky. In 2013 she visited Brazil where her work was in a São Paulo exhibition of British and Brazilian constructive artists. Elements of this show were shown by the Dan Galleria gallery in the London 2013 Frieze event. Examples of her work are held in many public collections including 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 ...
, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British
Government Art Collection The Government Art Collection (GAC) is the collection of artworks owned by the UK government and administered by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The GAC's artworks are used to decorate major government buildings in the UK and ...
, the Arts Council and the
Henry Moore Institute The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore, and to promote the public appreciation of sculpt ...
and in collections in the US, Finland and Hungary. Wise died on 11 April 2020 of
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
, while living in the care home in
Chanteloup-les-Vignes Chanteloup-les-Vignes () is a commune and town in the Yvelines department, Île-de-France, north central France. The town was used for a large part of the film ''La Haine''. Demographic evolution See also *Communes of the Yvelines departmen ...
near Paris to which she had moved following the deterioration of her health in 2018.


Selected exhibitions

* ''Order and Rhythm'', Austin/ Desmond Fine Art, London, UK (2020) * ''Winter Exhibition'', Austin/ Desmond Fine Art, London, UK (2019) * ''British Constructivism'',
Pallant House Gallery Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th-century British art in the world. History The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by ...
, Chichester, UK (2017) * ''Aspects of Modern British Art'', Austin/ Desmond Fine Art, London, UK (2016) * ''Five Issues of Studio International'',
Raven Row Raven Row is a free art exhibition centre in Spitalfields. It was constructed from numbers 56 and 58, Artillery Lane. These properties were built about 1690. The area was formerly used for testing artillery and this portion of the lane was ...
, London, UK (2015) * ''Liverpool Biennial: Claude Parent'',
Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The gallery was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corporatio ...
, Liverpool, UK, (2014) * ''A Fine Line: Concrete, Constructivist and Minimalist Art'', Austin/ Desmond Fine Art, London, UK (2014) * ''Construction England'',
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in En ...
, London, UK (2010) * ''Systems 2'',
Polytechnic of Central London The University of Westminster is a public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first polytechnic to open in London. The Polytechnic formally received a Royal charter in Au ...
, UK (1973) * ''Systems'',
Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...
, London, UK (1972) * ''Four Artists Reliefs, Constructions and Drawings'',
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 ...
, London, UK (1968) * ''Reliefs/ Structures'',
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 ...
, London, UK (1963)


References


Further reading

*Fowler, Alan, catalogue essays in exhibition catalogues ''Elements of Abstraction'' (2005) and ''A Rational Aesthetic'' (2008), Southampton City Art Gallery. *Grieve, Alastair, chapter 10 in ''Constructed Abstract Art in England: A Forgotten Avant Garde'', Yale University Press, 2005. *Wise, Gillian, statement pp. 276 – 281 in ''DATA'', Anthony Hill (editor), Faber & Faber, 1968. *Wise, Gillian, essay 'Quantities and Qualities: Some Notes on Working Ideas in Art', ''Leonardo'' magazine, Vol.1 1968, pp. 41–50. *Wise, Gillian, statement in exhibition catalogue ''Systems'', Arts Council, 1972. *Wise, Gillian, statement p. 84 in exhibition catalogue 'Hayward Annual '78', Arts Council 1978. *Wise, Gillian, statements and illustrations of her works in self-published book, ''Low Frequency'', 2002. * Wise, Gillian, '20 Small works', self-published booklet, 2011


External links

*
Gillian Wise's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wise, Gillian 1936 births 2020 deaths 20th-century English women artists 21st-century English women artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Wimbledon College of Arts Artists from the London Borough of Redbridge Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in France People from Ilford