Cornwall, and St Ives in particular, has long been a destination for artists. Turner was recorded to have visited the town in 1811, but the advent of the railway helped to draw more artists down to this tiny corner of England, in the search for West Cornwall’s special quality of light.
The St Ives School as it is known today really kicked off around 1950, when a group of young artists went to join Ben Nicholson and his then wife, sculptor Dame Barbara Hepworth, who had settled in the town in 1939 on the outbreak of World War Two. Nicholson and Hepworth made St Ives a centre for modern and abstract art throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s, creating a community of artists, all inspired by the dramatic Cornish landscape. Nicholson and Hepworth were some of the leading artists of the period, and much like many of the other key artists groups of the 20th century, they drew younger artists to them, encouraging them to experiment with their work and push the boundaries in terms of modernity and abstraction.
Ben Nicholson by Humphrey Spender @National Portrait Gallery, London
Key members of the St Ives School include some of the most important artists of the abstract movement, including the likes of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Paul Feiler, Sir Terry Frost, Roger Hilton, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon and the world-famous potter, Bernard Leach. The St Ives School was at the forefront of the abstract movement throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and there now appears to be a renewed interest in the School’s work. This may have been partly due to the opening of the Tate St Ives in 1992 which has given the ‘town a whole new lease of artistic life,’ according to the Tate’s website. However, at auction, we have seen that values for the main protagonists of the St Ives School have started to increase.
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, titled Yellow Island II with an estimate of £2,000 - £4,000 - available in the Art & Design Sale in May
With this in mind, we spoke to Lady Anne Evans, a major collector of the St Ives School genre. She told us:
“There is a reason why artists over the decades have worked in Cornwall. The light is incredible, the landscape and seascape have an abstraction built within them, all coupled with a magical colour and texture. From an artists’ point of view, it’s an incredibly calm but also inspirational place; a place where they can view things in a two-dimensional way, exploring the relationships between colour and light, and this, particularly amongst the St Ives School, leads to an explosion of wonderful creativity. My particular favourites amongst the St Ives School are Sandra Blow, Winifred and Ben Nicholson, Fred Yates and of course Terry Frost.”
“These St Ives works are all about balance, rhythm and movement, all through colour and shape and that is what these Cornwall artists were so good at, distilling images down to their barest forms. They were incredibly important in the modern British and post-war era and were working in an abstraction which completely resonated at the time, using not only paint but also ceramics, wirework and even the written word. In my collection I have a picture by Fred Yates which was painted in my own house in Cornwall – how special is that. The light and the images of the sun and the sea are truly magical. Another favourite of mine is a painting by Winifred Nicholson, which she created just after she got married. It was painted at a time when she was madly in love, and this can be seen by the way she uses colour and applies the brush strokes to the canvas. It is just glorious.”
“Collecting is a narrative, it is about what is important to me and what resonates with me personally. It’s a jigsaw puzzle and I would urge anyone looking to start a collection to consider the St Ives School. It’s very accessible and the tales behind some of the artists and their lives in Cornwall all add to the story. The really great thing about the St Ives School is that there is an entry level into this market for people who would like to try and start collecting, at only a few hundred pounds, or of course there’s options to buy works for into the tens or hundreds of thousands.”
Ben Nicholson 'Curious Forms', estimate £6,000 - £10,000, available in the Art & Design sale in May.
Looking ahead to next Art & Design Sale on Thursday 26th May, Cheffins will be offering original works by some of the leading lights of the St Ives School, including a picture titled ‘Curious Forms’ by Ben Nicholson, estimate £6,000 - £10,000, another by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, titled Yellow Island II with an estimate of £2,000 - £4,000 and another by Breon O’Casey, which is set to sell for between £1,500 - £2,500. These important works were consigned from a private collection in Cambridge.
Breon O'Casey - estimate £1,500 - £2,500 at the Art & Design Sale in May
To find out more, or to consign other pictures from the St Ives School, contact us here.
Cheffins would like to thank Lady Anne Evans for her contribution to this article.