The period following the Second World War, up to 1956, is often characterised as the most dynamic and cohesive era in the development of modern art in St Ives. Its history is often told in terms of the different artistic personalities involved in the central debate of the time over the acceptance of abstract art.
From around 1943 Borlase Smart, a painter in the realist tradition who was nevertheless receptive to contemporary art advocated the inclusion of work by Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and the new generation of modern artists in the exhibitions of the St Ives Society of Artists in the old Mariners' Church above the harbour.
This arrangement proved unsatisfactory, and a group of younger artists, including Sven Berlin, Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Bryan Wynter and the printer Guido Morris, began to organise separate displays in the church's crypt. By 1948 the so-called Crypt Group had grown to include among others David Haughton, Patrick Heron, Adrian Ryan and Kit Barker. In 1949 the Penwith Society of Arts was founded to provide a fresh arena for modern art. This came to be understood by many as espousing an austerely abstract programme under Nicholson and Hepworth's influence.
The perceived polarisation of abstract versus realist art was felt by some artists to be too stark and unaccommodating. Peter Lanyon, in particular, advocated the need for modern artistic practice to embrace a greater plurality. He sought to promote the view that a locally based art could be both modern and international. Though abstract in the sense of not being literally representational, Lanyon's work explicitly handles landscape themes. His emphasis on a 'gestural' style of painting, in which individual brush marks are highly expressive, was shared by such contemporaries as Terry Frost and Patrick Heron.
While owing a debt to modernism, it contrasts with the modernist emphasis on pure, sharply defined forms. Interestingly, a parallel development can be seen in Barbara Hepworth's sculpture of the late I940s and 1950s, which makes more overt reference to the human form. An aspect of the new world of the Welfare State is movingly documented in her hospital drawings of 1947–8.
Despite reservations, about both their influence on the Penwith Society of Artists and their tendency to dominate critical perception of St Ives art, Hepworth and Nicholson's example remained crucial. With their self-discipline and clarity of purpose, they exemplified serious, professional artists. Moreover, they provided direct support for many of the younger generation: Terry Frost, John Wells, Denis Mitchell, John Milne and many others worked for Hepworth as assistants.
In 1951 the Festival of Britain provided an opportunity for many of the artists associated with St Ives to make new works: Hepworth and Nicholson received major public commissions, and an Arts Council touring exhibition of large paintings included Peter Lanyon's Porthleven and Patrick Heron's Christmas Eve and Blue Landscape. In these works formal exploration of colour, space and line is combined with narrative or symbolic content.
From the same period Terry Frost's work focused on more abstract concerns. Roger Hilton was closely in tune with new painting in continental Europe, and other artists who visited regularly at this time, including Alan Davie and William Scott, brought an awareness of American Abstract Expressionism. Patrick Heron's work as a critic during the 1940s and 1950s was important in highlighting new directions in British art and setting these in an international context.