Edwin John Victor Pasmore,
CH,
CBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of
abstract art
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- ...
in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s.
Early life
Pasmore was born in
Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908.
He studied at
Summer Fields School
Summer Fields is a fee-paying boys' independent day and boarding preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford. It was originally called Summerfield and used to have a subsidiary school, Summerfields, St Leonards-on-Sea (known as "Summers mi").
...
in
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
and
Harrow
Harrow may refer to:
Places
* Harrow, Victoria, Australia
* Harrow, Ontario, Canada
* The Harrow, County Wexford, a village in Ireland
* London Borough of Harrow, England
* Harrow, London, a town in London
* Harrow (UK Parliament constituency)
* ...
in west London, but with the death of his father in 1927 he was forced to take an administrative job at the
London County Council
The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...
.
He studied painting part-time at the
Central School of Art
The Central School of Art and Design was a school of 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 of Arts and Crafts.
...
and was associated with the formation of the
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 ...
. After experimenting with abstraction, Pasmore worked for a time in a lyrical figurative style, painting views of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
from
Hammersmith
Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
It ...
much in the style of
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for tur ...
and
Whistler.

In the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Pasmore was a
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
. Having been refused recognition by his Local Tribunal, he was called up for military service in 1942. He refused orders and was court martialled and sentenced to 123 days imprisonment. The sentence qualified him to go to the Appellate Tribunal in Edinburgh, which allowed him unconditional exemption from military service.
Artistic career
The figurative years: 1927–1947
One of the first exhibitions in which his works feature was held at the Zwemmer gallery, London 1934. His works were influenced by
Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...
and
Cézanne.
The break into abstraction (1948–1954)
His break into
abstract art
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- ...
was inspired by the artists
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...
and
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
. Their writings feature nature and the creation of a dynamic harmony in art which stood for the future harmony of society.
Beginning in 1947, he developed a purely abstract style under the influence of
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscapes, and still-life. He was one of the leading promoters of abstract art in England.
Backg ...
and other artists associated with ''
Circle
A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...
'', becoming a pioneering figure of the revival of interest in
Constructivism
Constructivism may refer to:
Art and architecture
* Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes
* Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...
in Britain following the War. Pasmore's abstract work, often in collage and construction of reliefs, pioneered the use of new materials and was sometimes on a large architectural scale.
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...
described Pasmore's new style as "The most revolutionary event in post-war British art".
In 1950, he was commissioned to design an abstract mural for a bus depot in
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...
and the following year Pasmore contributed a mural to the
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951.
Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...
that promoted a number of the British Constructivists.
Pasmore was a supporter of fellow artist
Richard Hamilton, giving him a teaching job in Newcastle and contributing a constructivist structure to the exhibition ''
This Is Tomorrow
''This Is Tomorrow'' was an art exhibition in August 1956 at the Whitechapel Art Gallery on Whitechapel High Street in London's East End, UK, facilitated by curator Bryan Robertson. The core of the exhibition was the ICA Independent Group.
His ...
'' in collaboration with
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 ...
and Helen Phillips. Pasmore was commissioned to make a mural for the new
Newcastle Civic Centre
Newcastle Civic Centre is a civic center, municipal building in the Newcastle Haymarket, Haymarket area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Designed by George Kenyon, the centre was built for Newcastle City Council in 1967 and formally opened by K ...
. His interest in the synthesis of art and architecture was given free hand when he was appointed Consulting Director of Architectural Design for
Peterlee
Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It is located south of Sunderland, north of Hartlepool, west of the Durham Coast and east of Durham. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68). The act als ...
development corporation in 1955. Pasmore's choices in this area proved controversial; the centerpiece of the town design became an abstract
public art
Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
structure of his design, the
Apollo Pavilion. The structure became the focus for local criticism over the failures of the Development Corporation but Pasmore remained a defender of his work, returning to the town to face critics of the Pavilion at a public meeting in 1982. After many years of neglect the work was restored in 2009 with a grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
.
Pasmore represented Britain at the 1961
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, was participating artist at the
Documenta II 1959 in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...
and was a trustee of the
Tate Gallery
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 ...
, donating a number of works to the collection. He gave a lecture on
J.M.W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...
as 'first of the moderns' to the
Turner Society
Turners (, ) are members of German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnvereine. They promoted German culture, physical culture, and liberal politics. Turners, especially Francis Lieber (1798–1872), were the leading sponsors of gymnastics a ...
, of which he was elected a vice president in 1975.
Teaching: 1937–1961
Pasmore was a leading figure in the promotion of abstract art and reform of the fine art education system. From 1943–1949, he taught at
Camberwell School of Art
Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...
where one of his students was
Terry Frost
Sir Terence Ernest Manitou Frost RA (13 October 1915 – 1 September 2003) was a British abstract artist, who worked in Newlyn, Cornwall. Frost was renowned for his use of the Cornish light, colour and shape to start a new art movement in ...
whom he advised not to bother with the School's formal teaching and to instead study the works in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
.
Between 1950 and 1954 Pasmore taught at the
Central School of Art
The Central School of Art and Design was a school of 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 of Arts and Crafts.
...
.
From 1954 to 1961 he taught at
Kings College, University of Durham, in Newcastle upon Tyne (now
Newcastle University
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...
). There he developed a radical art and design course inspired by the 'basic course' of the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
that became the model for higher arts education across the UK. He was succeeded by
Richard Hamilton.
Personal life
In 1940, he married the artist
Wendy Blood.
[Tate]
Wendy Pasmore , Tate
accessdate: 22 August 2014 They had two children, a son and a daughter.
[bookroomartpress.co.uk]
accessdate: 22 August 2014 He moved to Malta in 1966. He died in
Gudja
Gudja is a village in the Southern Region, Malta, Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 3,148 as of March 2017. The village is located on high grounds, south of the capital Valletta. It is administered by the Gudja Local Council. A numb ...
,
Malta
Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
, on 23 January 1998, aged 89.
Legacy
On 3 November 2014, the Central Bank of Malta, in collaboration with the Victor Pasmore Foundation, inaugurated the Victor Pasmore Gallery in the Central Bank's premises at the Polverista Gallery. This gallery houses a permanent exhibition of works discovered in Pasmore's home in Gudja, Malta and also in his residence in Blackheath, London. The exhibition consists primarily of paintings and constructions created while the artist lived in Malta.
See also
*
''Abstract painting'' - 1998 painting by Pasmore
References
Sources
*''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', 1 September 1942.
Further reading
* Grieve, Alastair, ''Constructed Abstract Art in England: A Neglected Avant-Garde'',
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...
, 2005.
* Grieve, Alastair (editor), ''Victor Pasmore: Towards a New Reality'',
Tate Publishing, 2010.
* Bowness, Alan and Lambertini, Luigi, ''Victor Pasmore: With a Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, Constructions and Graphics, 1926-79'',
Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
, 1980.
External links
*
Central Bank of MaltaFondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasmore, Victor
1908 births
1998 deaths
British abstract painters
People from Tandridge (district)
People educated at Harrow School
People educated at Summer Fields School
20th-century English painters
English male painters
Architects from Surrey
British conscientious objectors
Academics of Durham University
Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design
Academics of Camberwell College of Arts
20th-century English architects
Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Royal Academicians
20th-century English male artists