We have survived a brisk January, and February is no better, being one of the coldest months in the UK. As we sit warm inside and look out into those icy conditions, take a look at Thompsons Gallery's artist of the month. This month we will look at the one and only Sir Terry Frost. Terry Frost became one of Britain's most successful and highly regarded artists during the 20th century.
Frost was born in 1915 in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He did not grow up particularly artistic, rather he began what he would become internatinoally famous for in a very unlikely place. During WWII, Frost served on multiple fronts until as a commando, he was captured in Crete in 1941. It was at his prisoner of war camp in Bavaria where he met a man called Adrian Heath, an artist who studied before and after the war at the Slade School of Art. It was Heath who taught and encouraged Terry Frost to pick up a paintbrush.
After the war, Frost attended the Camberwell School of Art in London and in 1946 moved to St. Ives in Cornwall for a year, where his first solo exhibition was held. Upon his return to the Camberwell School of Art in 1947, under the tutelage of mentors such as Victor Pasmore and Ben Nicholson, Frost was introduced to abtract ideas such as cubist. He would go on to paint his first abstract painting in 1949 for which he would become for. He was not just a painter however, he worked in a wide range of mediums including painting, collage, sculpture, ceramic, and prints. Besides painting, Frost taught art at the Bath Academy of Art, the University of Leeds, Cyprus College of Art and the University of Reading.
Frost was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1992 and knighted in 1998, he died on 1 September 2003. His works are found in private and public collections all over the world, such as the Tate and V&A in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Galleries in Edinburgh, and the National Museums of Canada in Ottowa to name but a few.
Here at Thompsons we have sold artworks by Terry Frost for over twenty years. We currently have a wide range of his artworks available for sale, which you can see here. If you have any enquiries please contact Thompsons Gallery at enquiries@thompsonsgallery.co.uk
