Tate St Ives History: Art in St Ives
Introduction
Ben Nicholson
1943-45 (St Ives, Cornwall) 1943-5
© Angela Verren-Taunt. All rights reserved, DACS 2002
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in Tate Collection
The small Cornish town of St Ives has attracted painters for over a century, amongst its early visitors were J.M.W. Turner, Whistler and the young Sickert.
In 1928, on a visit to St Ives, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood discovered the work of retired mariner Alfred Wallis whose untutored paintings of town and seascapes had a profound influence on the development of their work.
In 1939, with the outbreak of war, Nicholson returned to settle in St Ives with Barbara Hepworth and they were joined by Naum Gabo, thus establishing in West Cornwall an outpost for the abstract avant-garde, international in outlook but strongly rooted in the local landscape. The potter, Bernard Leach, had been working in St Ives since 1920 and the ceramic tradition which he established with Shoji Hamada adds a further dimension to St Ives' international standing.
Peter Lanyon
Lost Mine 1959
© Estate of the Artist
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in Tate Collection
After the war the emergence of a younger generation including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Terry Frost, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron and Roger Hilton had a decisive effect on the development of painting in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century.
Many artists are associated with St Ives and West Cornwall, its rich history and its vivid artistic life.