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Saturday 5th – Saturday 26th November 2022

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Gerald Marks was born in Hampstead in 1921, the only child of a liberal Jewish couple. His father was a sales representative for luxury goods such as Bohemian Crystal and his mother a milliner. Soon after Marks was born the family moved to Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, where he grew up. His parents returned to London in 1939, taking a flat in Kenton Court, Kensington High Street.

Between 1938 and 1941 Marks attended the Central School of Art, first in London and then in Northampton where the school was evacuated during WWII. He was called up in 1942 and served in the RAF’s Photographic Unit as a non-combative Private. He spent most of his War in Harrogate and Aberystwyth but also marched to Brussels after it was liberated, photographing the detestation along the way. He was then posted to India where he remained until he was demobbed in 1947. Marks was interested in left-wing politics from an early age, joining the Communist Party in 1941. He wrote in later life that his political education was … “the Spanish Civil War, the Depression, the rise of Fascism and mass unemployment. This was when I became a Marxist”.

After the War, Marks used his ex-Serviceman’s grant to continue studying at the Central School of Art (rejecting the Royal College as too elitist). He was taught by John Minton, Bernard Meninsky and Claude Rogers, all of whom he had the greatest respect for. He exhibited widely – with the London Group, at the Redfern Gallery, Piccadilly Gallery, Leicester Galleries, and Ben Uri Gallery – and was on the committee of the Artists’ International Association.

In the late 1940s Marks moved to 13 Queens Gardens in Bayswater, a building that was to remain both home and studio for the rest of his life. He first rented a room in Flat 2 and then in 1952 took over the top maisonette. He developed a growing reputation as a figurative painter and from 1948-1961 taught at various art schools including Camberwell, Heatherley’s, Morley College and the Workers’ Educational Association.

In the mid-1950s Marks began a series of large paintings of scaffolding and construction sites, his aim being to depict modern urban life using abstract forms. These works were met with disapproval by the Communist Party who expected member artists to pursue their particular brand of Social Realism. This indictment of his new approach, along with the Russian invasion of Hungary, led to Marks leaving the Party in 1956.

In the late 1950s Mark’s paintings of London building sites moved gradually toward abstraction, culminating in a solo show of abstract paintings at the Drian Gallery in 1962. However, financial hardship had meant he was forced to take a full-time teaching post at Croydon College of Art in 1961 and for twelve years he painted very little. Alongside his responsibilities at Croydon, he became involved in setting up teachers’ workshops and Saturday Schools for youngsters with artistic talent. He is still remembered as a charismatic and enthusiastic teacher.

In 1974 Marks bought a ruin in the Cevennes, France, that would become a cherished retreat. His practice was reignited and a period of great productivity followed, culminating in an Arts Council Major Purchase Award in 1980. But, ever cautious of timing, it was not until after he retired in 1986 that he would exhibit again; at Faroe Road Studios in 1988 and William Jackson Gallery in 1994. Despite many offers, the 1994 exhibition was his last one-man show. He died in 2018. In her eulogy to him, his ex-wife, the painter Doreen Fletcher, wrote ‘the three driving passions of his life were women, art and politics in interchangeable order of importance at various points on his life’.

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This small Exhibition is an introduction to Gerald Mark’s work from 1940 to 1960 when he adopted Abstraction. If you would like to learn more about the artist please join

Tom Edwards and Doreen Fletcher

IN CONVERSATION

6pm Wednesday 23rd November 2022

The painter Doreen Fletcher met Gerald Marks in 1976. They were married from 1981-1983. She is the heir of his Estate.
Please contact the Gallery if you would like to attend.

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PART I

Paintings c.1940 – c.1955.

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PART II

Paintings c.1955 to 1960.

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GERALD MARKS (1921-2018)

 

1928-1938 Lindisfarne College, Westcliffe-on-Sea.
1938-1941 Central School of Arts and Crafts/continued 1946-48.
1942-1946 War Service.
1946- 1957 Member of Central Committee, Artists International Association.
1948 Organiser of AIA under 30s exhibition.
1949 Member of Committee ‘Young Painters working in Britain’ Chairman AIA Gallery Committee and organised ‘The Coal Miners: An Exhibition of Paintings & Drawings by Coal Miners & Professional Artists’.
1948-1957 Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts. Taught Life Drawing, General Drawing, Pictorial Drawing, Art History.
1948-1956 Extensive Experience in Evening Institute teaching including Workers’ Education Association.
1955-1956 Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal ‘Realism’.
1956 Member of Ben Uri Gallery Committee.
1957-1961 Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts School of Drawing and Painting (taught Life Drawing).
1954-1961 Morley College (taught Life Drawing).
1958-1961 Heatherley School of Art (taught Life Drawing, Painting, Composition).
1958-1961 South East Essex Technical College (taught Documentary, Drawing, General Drawing).
1962-1972 Full-time Lecturer Croydon College Faculty of Art & Design, Department of Fine Art (Director, Teachers Workshop and In Service Centre).
1972-1986 Croydon College (Senior Lecturer in Fine Art. 3^rd Year Tutor; Course Director of Thesis Studies).
1985-1987 Stourbridge School of Art (department of Fine Art Visiting Tutor).

SOLO EXHIBTIONS

1962 ‘Thirty-one Paintings’, Drian Gallery
1988 ‘Series of Seven’, Central Space Faroe Road Studios, London
1991 ‘The Madeleine Series’ , William Jackson Gallery, London
1994 ‘Recent Work’ William Jackson Gallery, London
2000 ‘Eight Works on Paper’ Chelsea Arts Club

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1936/38 Guild Hall Art Gallery Royal Drawing Society.
1939/40 Art Student Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries.
1940 ‘Paintings of the War’, British Art Centre.
1947 AIA Members’ Exhibition.
1948 ‘Under 30’s Exhibition’, AIA Gallery.
1948 ‘Contemporary Jewish Artists’, Ben Uri Gallery.
1949 Paul Alexander Gallery.
1949 Member of the Organising Committee ‘Young Painters working in Britain’, AIA Gallery.
1951 ‘Contemporary Painting & Sculpture’, Reading Museum and Art Gallery.
1951 ‘Contemporary Painting & Sculpture’, Guilford  Art Gallery.
1952 The London Group.
1952/53 ‘The Mirror and the Square’, New Burlington Galleries and travelling.
1955 Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery; Piccadilly Gallery.
1955 ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’, Part One, Leicester Galleries.
1956 ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’, Parts One & Two, Leicester Galleries.
1956 Anglo Jewish Artists, Ben Uri Gallery.
1957 ‘Man and Machine’ AIA Gallery.
1958 ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’, Parts 1 & 2 Leicester  Galleries.
1958 ‘The Re-building of Morley College’, Architectural Association.
1959 ‘The City in Construction’, South London Gallery.
1959 ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’, Part One, Leicester Galleries.
1962 ‘Modern Painting & Sculpture’, Ben Uri Gallery.
1963 ‘Gallery Artists’ Drian Gallery.
1968 Painters’ Prints Travelling Exhibition , Universities of Southampton, Sussex, Surrey, Keele, Essex and East Anglia.
1975 ‘The Nude, 19^th & 20^th Century’, Morley College.
1978/81/82/84 The London Group, Royal College of Art.
1988 ‘Starting a Collection’, Warwick Arts Trust.
1992 ‘The Summer Show’, William Jackson Gallery.
1993 ‘Fields of Colour, William Jackson Gallery.
1993 The Big Picture Show, William Jackson Gallery at Chicago Arts Fair.
1995 ‘Art 95’ Business Design Centre, Islington, London.
2000 ’10 Works on Paper’, Chelsea Arts Club.
2015 Belgrave Art Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall.

COLLECTIONS

Arts Council of England
Warwick Arts Trust
Ben Uri Collection
Drian Gallery 
Morley College
Linda Goldstein, Chicago, USA
John Richardson, Hong Kong

 REVIEWS

1948 BBC Third Programme, Colin McInnes.
1949 Art News and Review, David Waring.
1949 Our Time, Richard Carline.
1952 Daily Mail, Pierre Jeannerett.
1955 Art, Bernard Denvir.
1955 Art  News, Ray Watkinson.
1955 The Times, Critic.
1962 The Observer, Nigel Gosling.
1962 Art News, Conroy Maddox.
1962 The Guardian, George Butcher.
1962 Art News, Denis Bowen.
1962 New York Herald Tribune, Helen Lambert.
1962 Art International, Norbert Lynton.
1952-1962 The Jewish Chronicle, F.G. Stone.
1988 Arts Review, William Jackson.
1988 The Guardian, Sacha Craddock.
1991 The Guardian Choice, Tim Hilton.
1992 Time Out, Adrian Searle.
1992 Art Issues, Keith Patrick.
1994 Evening Standard, Nicholas Drake.
1995 Financial Times Weekend, William Packer.

PUBLISHED WRITINGS

1948 AIA Newsletter, ‘Mark Gertler Retrospective Exhibition’.
1948 ‘Realism’, Guttuso at the Leicester Galleries.
1948 AIA Newsletter, ‘Obituary, Bernard Meninsky An Appreciation’.
1955 ‘Realism’, The Great Bardfield Exhibition.