Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1122547
115 B I O & S O L O E X H I B I T I O N S 115 B I O G R A P H Y & E X H I B I T I O N S 1948-1952: Leaves Camberwell and begins teaching illustration and painting at Central School of Art. Spends holidays in France and Italy looking at large-scale fresco compositions in preparation for painting the vast, central mural in the Dome of Discovery for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Paints First Assembly of Figures. Moves to Belsize Park where he lives until his death. Develops an awareness of the painted surface as an important element in itself. First sight of work by Nicolas de Staël (Matthiesen Gallery), points the way both towards reconciliation between figuration and abstraction, and towards eloquence and sensuality in his handling of oil paint. Holidays spent in Ireland, Northern England, Scotland, Cornwall, France and Spain, all of which contribute to a growing interest and productivity in landscape painting. 1953: Paints Second Assembly of Figures. 1956: Paints Third Assembly of Figures (Harvest Assembly) and four 'Lazarus' paintings (1956-9). Makes his first contact with American Abstract Expressionism, which he finds conceptually disturbing but which proves to be an important technical influence. 1957: Paints Fourth Assembly of Figures (Transfiguration Group). 1957/58: Paints Fifth Assembly of Figures (Two Figures in Sequence). 1959: Travels to the USA, visiting Iowa, Chicago and Mexico. Appointed resident painter at Iowa State University. Receives much-needed stimulation from colleagues and students. Produces a series of dynamic winter landscapes. Travels to Mexico, which inspires some important, large-scale paintings. The direct contact with Modern American art and American optimism helps promote a notable gain in freedom of his subsequent painting. Joins the staff of the Slade School of Art. Visits Essex and makes his first paintings of the landscape there. 1960: Holds an important exhibition at the Matthiesen Gallery. Visits Venice and Greece, travels to the Cyclades and throughout the Peloponnese. A predominance of blue and other open areas of colour, appears in his paintings as a result of his encounter with the Aegean Sea. Painting becomes looser and more abstracted and gains in technical variety. Commences a series of dense but subtle charcoal drawings under the influence of his student Mario Dubsky. 1961: Travels to Wales, Scilly Isles and St. Ives. Produces paintings based on these visits, and the previous summer, in Greece. First large-scale paintings in which several figures are fused as ambiguous entities. A preponderance of reduced and abstracted arrangements of forms, in which the figures begin to also coalesce with, and dissolve into, the surrounding setting. This formal consideration becomes a major preoccupation for the next decade. 1962: Has a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, curated by Bryan Robertson. Paints Sixth Assembly of Figures. 1963: Paints an important, large-scale mural for the Aboyne Estate Clubroom, Wandsworth – a commission from the London County Council, who later destroy it. Exhibits a series of drawings at Bienal de São Paulo.