TREVOR BELL
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<strong>TREVOR</strong> <strong>BELL</strong><br />
THRUST
All works may be viewed online at<br />
www.waterhousedodd.com/exhibitions/trevor_bell<br />
and are available for purchase on receipt of this catalogue<br />
<strong>TREVOR</strong> <strong>BELL</strong><br />
THRUST<br />
London: 7th-30th May 2015 &<br />
New York: 24th June-18th July 2015<br />
WATERHOUSE & DODD<br />
LONDON<br />
47 Albemarle Street<br />
London W1S 4JW<br />
+44 (0)20 7734 7800<br />
london@waterhousedodd.com<br />
NEW YORK<br />
960 Madison Avenue 2nd Fl<br />
New York, NY 10021<br />
+1 212 717 9100<br />
newyork@waterhousedodd.com<br />
www.waterhousedodd.com<br />
Cover image (detail)<br />
Blue Radial, 1985<br />
Oil on linen<br />
96 x 140 in / 244 x 355 cm<br />
Back cover image<br />
Poppy, 2012<br />
Acrylic on panel<br />
33 x 35.5 in / 86 x 90 cm
THRUST<br />
The title of our exhibition, Thrust, is taken from a large shaped painting featured in the show.<br />
The word 'thrust' seems to perfectly describe Bell's practice. It implies progression and a barely<br />
contained drive towards a goal. The word also conveys a sense of power, scale and virility. All<br />
these attributes are evident, in one way or another, in the paintings Bell has produced<br />
throughout his long career. We are not presenting a retrospective of Bell's oeuvre. Instead we<br />
are trying to shed light on the key themes that have always informed his work and in doing so it<br />
is necessary to exhibit key paintings from many different periods, almost all of which are<br />
sourced directly from the artist’s studio. Like many artists of his generation, too much emphasis<br />
is placed on early experimentation and not enough consideration is given to the later periods<br />
that are no less vital. We particularly wanted to exhibit works dating from the time Bell spent in<br />
Florida, partly because these works have rarely been seen in Britain or New York and partly<br />
because the unique environment and experience of that time had such a profound effect on him.<br />
Although Bell's work went through many evolutions over time, a clear pictorial lineage is<br />
apparent through certain key works. It is very easy to see the link between the 1962<br />
canvas, Bernina, through Thrust itself and onto the works of the last two years, including<br />
the Windover Series (no.8 is represented in this exhibition). These paintings display the<br />
same dynamic forms and limited colour range. Bernina, for all its pared down<br />
abstraction, retains the classical rectangular format. It was not until 1962 and<br />
works such as Mountain Triangle that Bell began to dispense with the rigid<br />
‘window’ format and experiment with shaped canvases. This move proved rather<br />
too daring for his dealers at the time, with whom he had enjoyed a<br />
commercially and critically successful relationship. By the time Bell was<br />
Mountain Triangle, 1962, one of the first shaped canvases produced by Bell<br />
working on Thrust in 1967-8, his vision for the shaped canvases had become monumental and<br />
one could argue that he was pushing the boundaries of painting far more than any of his ‘St Ives’<br />
peers. His paintings had physically thrust out of the rectangular format and redefined the<br />
painting as an object in its own right rather than a window on the world.<br />
Bell's art is not introspective and it is not purely confined to a philosophical debate on the<br />
meaning of painting. A common misconception is that Bell's painting, like that of Lanyon's and<br />
Heron's, bore a direct relationship with landscape, and as such it is in some way<br />
representational. This is simply not the case. However Bell's painting is certainly inspired by the<br />
environment he lives in and the fundamental forces which shape natural forms. Bell seeks to<br />
represent the primal power that surrounds and defines both us and our environment. This is not<br />
always a destructive force. Canvases that were shown alongside Thrust bear titles such as Keel,<br />
Fastnet and Warsash (also part of this exhibition), and these titles allude to Bell's love of sailing.<br />
Through sailing Bell felt a direct and tangible connection to nature. His harnessing of those<br />
natural forces to propel a boat forward finds an abstract interpretation in his paintings of the<br />
time. Many of the shaped canvas even appear sail-like, the dynamic black and coloured forms<br />
conveying a sense of propulsion - of thrust.<br />
The primal forces that concerned Bell were not<br />
necessarily those which one would experience on a<br />
day-to-day basis. Bernina, the earliest work in our<br />
exhibition, is titled after the Alpine range in eastern<br />
Switzerland. Bell was (and remains) interested in<br />
evoking the tremendous geological forces that create<br />
these mountain ranges. Closer to his adopted home in<br />
Photograph taken by Bell while trekking in Zanska<br />
on one of three Himalayan trips.
Cornwall, he was inspired by witnessing the force of the<br />
sea against the cliff faces, but also by the very creation of<br />
the land itself. Cornwall is built on a backbone of granite<br />
displaced by violent volcanic action. Works in our<br />
exhibition, including Fissure and Small Juggler refer to the<br />
action of the sea on rock. The repeated pounding of the<br />
sea causes fissures in the cliff faces, eventually creating<br />
great cavities (known as blowholes) through which<br />
plumes of sea water are displaced. Bell's work seeks not to depict the landscape but to describe<br />
the forces that shape and mould it. These themes reached their most obvious conclusions with<br />
the great Himalayan works of the early 1990s where not only did the canvases burst from their<br />
rectangular formats, the substructure of the artwork (the stretchers) thrust outside the canvas<br />
to become central compositional elements.<br />
Bell was not immune to man-made phenomena. His move to<br />
America in the 1970s coincided with the great period of space<br />
exploration. His home was located in Tallahassee, Florida (he was<br />
a Professor at Florida State University), close to the sea but also<br />
close to Cape Canaveral and the home of the Apollo and Voyager<br />
launches. Bell was entranced by the power of the rockets used in<br />
the launches, both in terms of the noise and spectacle, but also<br />
the colour. The rockets themselves, blasting upwards and<br />
breaking through the protective atmosphere of the Earth, seem<br />
to be a mechanical embodiment of Bell's painting. Bell returned<br />
the favour. Several major works of this period bear the<br />
Above: ‘Blowhole’ by Dominick Tyler from his book ‘Uncommon Ground’<br />
Right: The night launch of Voyager 2 (1977), from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Image c/o NASA/JPL<br />
unmistakable forms of jet plumes rendered in spectacular<br />
colours. To reinforce the sense of awe Bell felt in witnessing<br />
these launches many of the associated works aremonumental<br />
in size. Series such as the Tall Seven (shown right exhibited at<br />
Beyond Materiality, Tate St Ives) are unfortunately too large<br />
to be included in this exhibition, but works on paper from this<br />
period convey the same themes on a more modest scale.<br />
It would appear that Blue Radial (shown below with Madison Spring during preparations for this<br />
show) is set aside slightly from the works previously discussed. It bears no title alluding to<br />
location or experience. Yet it is the precarious balance of the forms that ties the painting to the<br />
rest of Bell's work. Blue Radial (like all works in the Rockers series) appears to contain its own<br />
potential energy. It seems forever teetering on the brink of movement, or more pertinently, of<br />
collapse. There is an uneasy tension created by the wedge splicing the hemisphere form. The<br />
viewer becomes aware of witnessing a violent dissection. As if depicting the splitting of an atom,<br />
the wedge appears to be unleashing a force which radiates brilliantly outwards from the point of<br />
contact, a force which is both explosive and creative.<br />
What our exhibition proves beyond doubt is that<br />
Bell is a masterful painter of complex themes and<br />
an artist who has never relaxed or lapsed into<br />
mannerism. There is a strong thematic link to his<br />
work throughout the fifty two year span displayed<br />
in our exhibition and at eighty four years old Bell is<br />
still producing bold and challenging work.<br />
Above: Installation of Tall Seven, Tate St Ives, 2004. Image courtesy of Tate St Ives<br />
Left: Studio installation photograph of Blue Radial and Madison Spring, 2015
Bernina, 1962<br />
Oil on canvas<br />
24 x 36 in / 61 x 92 cm
Four Shape, 1963<br />
Oil on panel<br />
21.5 x 28.75 in / 55 x 73 cm
Warsash, 1969<br />
Oil on canvas<br />
40 x 42 in / 101 x 106 cm<br />
Left:<br />
Thrust installed as part of Beyond Materiality<br />
at Tate St Ives, 2004.<br />
Image courtesy of Tate St Ives
Thrust, 1968<br />
Oil on board<br />
66 x 154 in / 168 x 391 cm<br />
Above: Bell installing Thrust in his Winchester studio (circa 1968).
Blue Radial, 1985<br />
Oil on linen<br />
96 x 140 in / 244 x 355 cm<br />
Above: Installation photograph of the Gulf Coast Museum, Largo, Florida,<br />
showing Blue Radial, no.s 4-6 of Florida Six and Tall Seven.
Tarn, 1993<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
47 x 36 in / 119 x 91 cm
One, 1991<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
20 x 20 in / 50 x 50 cm<br />
Small Juggler, 1992<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
33.5 x 21 in / 85 x 54 cm
Fissure, 2012<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
27.5 x 32.5 in / 70 x 83 cm
Hammer, 2012<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
55 x 90 in / 140 x 230 cm
Strong Yellow, 2014<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
61 x 49 in / 155 x 124.5 cm<br />
Grey Bite, 2013<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
59 x 57.5 in / 150 x 146 cm
Windover 8, 2013<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
59 x 98 in / 150 x 250 cm
Poppy, 2012<br />
Acrylic on panel<br />
33 x 35.5 in / 86 x 90 cm<br />
Windround, 2014<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
59 x 59 in / 150 x 150 cm
Madison spring, 2014<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
60 x 48 in / 152.5 x 122 cm
Untitled on yellow, 2012<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
36 x 36 in / 92 x 92 cm<br />
Jolly one, 2012<br />
Acrylic on canvas<br />
36 x 36 in / 92 x 92 cm
<strong>TREVOR</strong> <strong>BELL</strong><br />
British, born Leeds, 1930<br />
Trevor Bell was born in Leeds in 1930. He was awarded a scholarship to attend The Leeds<br />
College of Art from 1947 to 1952 and, encouraged by Terry Frost, moved to Cornwall in 1955. St<br />
Ives was the epicentre for British abstract art, being the home to artists such as Patrick Heron,<br />
Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Terry Frost. He made his<br />
reputation as a leading member of the group who helped establish British Art on the<br />
international stage. From these artists, especially Nicholson, Bell received advice and support.<br />
Nicholson, alongside his then dealer Charles Gimpel, encouraged him to show in London and<br />
Waddington Galleries gave Bell his first solo exhibition in 1958. Patrick Heron wrote the<br />
introduction to the exhibition catalogue, stating that Bell was ‘the best non-figurative painter<br />
under thirty’.<br />
In 1959 Bell was awarded the Paris Biennale International Painting Prize and an Italian<br />
Government Scholarship. In the following year he was offered the Gregory Fellowship in<br />
Painting at the University of Leeds whose advisors at the time were Sir Herbert Read and Henry<br />
Moore. It was during this period that Bell developed his shaped canvases, setting his work apart<br />
from other artists of his generation.<br />
Throughout the 1960’s Bell showed work in major exhibitions in the UK and USA and during this<br />
time his work was first purchased for the Tate collection. In 1973 he presented his new work at<br />
the Whitechapel Gallery in London, having just taken part in a major exhibition at the Corcoran<br />
Gallery in Washington DC. Over the course of the next thirty years Bell combined painting with<br />
teaching in various locations eventually moving to Florida State University in 1976 to become<br />
the Professor for Master Painting. Here with the provision of a warehouse-sized studio and time<br />
to really develop his painting he produced the large-scale, intensely coloured works, reflecting<br />
the influence of the climate and landscape on him and his work. He went on to spend the next<br />
20 years in America. Important exhibitions were held at the Corcoran Gallery and the Academy<br />
of Sciences in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum in Miami, The Cummer Gallery and the<br />
Museum of Art at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.<br />
In 1985 Bell was included in St Ives 1939-64, a seminal exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London,<br />
and in 1993 he was part of the inaugural show of the Tate St Ives. Moving from Florida in 1996<br />
he established his studios near Penzance, Cornwall and continued to exhibit in London, the USA<br />
and St Ives. Bell had a major solo exhibition at the Tate St Ives in 2004 and, in 2011, a further 14<br />
works were obtained by the Tate Gallery for their permanent collection. Bell has had works<br />
purchased and commissioned by numerous other international museums and public and private<br />
collections including (among others) The Arts Council of England, British Council, British<br />
Museum, Laing Art Gallery, Ljubljana’s U.V.U Keleia Collection and the Victoria & Albert<br />
Museum. Bell was twice a recipient of fellowships from the Fine Arts Council of Florida, an<br />
Honorary member of the Royal West of England Academy, an Honorary Fellow of University<br />
College Falmouth and an Emeritus Professor of Florida State University.<br />
Trevor Bell has been represented by Waterhouse & Dodd for ten years and has held four<br />
previous solo exhibitions at both our London and New York galleries.<br />
The Underwater, 1959<br />
Mixed media on paper<br />
19.25 x 14.25 in / 49 x 36 cm<br />
A storm wave breaking at<br />
Sennen Cove, Cornwall<br />
Selected Solo Exhibitions<br />
2014 The wind the space, Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
2013 Across the Gulf Stream,<br />
Museum of Fine Art, Orlando, Florida<br />
2012 Link, Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
2011 80 Years Young, Waterhouse & Dodd, New York<br />
2010 Nothing Extra, Waterhouse & Dodd, London<br />
Trevor Bell at Eighty; Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Aether,<br />
Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
2009 Haste Slowly, Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
Moving Right Along, Waterhouse & Dodd, London<br />
Nothing Extra, Leeds University Gallery<br />
2007 White & Colour, New Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
2006 Before Sea – After Earth, Waterhouse & Dodd, London<br />
Before Sea – After Earth, Said Gallery,Said Business School,<br />
University of Oxford, Oxford<br />
2005 Still – The New Paintings, Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
Trevor Bell: Heatscape – The Florida Six and Still – The New<br />
Paintings, Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth<br />
Calm Squares, Allusive Forms,<br />
New Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
Recent Work, Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
2004 Beyond Materiality: Paintings and Drawings 1967-2004,<br />
Tate Gallery, St Ives<br />
2003 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives<br />
Trevor Bell: A British Painter in America,<br />
Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts,<br />
Tallahassee, Florida<br />
The Gulf Coast Museum, Largo, Florida<br />
2002 Galerie Pelar Ltd, Greenport, New York<br />
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
Seven Worchester Terrace, Bath<br />
2001 New Millennium Gallery, St. Ives<br />
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
2000 North Light Gallery, Huddersfield<br />
1999 Stephen Lacey Gallery, London<br />
1998 Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, Florida<br />
Falmouth College of Arts, Falmouth<br />
1996 Illinois Centre, Chicago<br />
1995 Art Collectors Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida<br />
Mercantile Exchange Building, Chicago<br />
Marsha Orr Contemporary Fine Art, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
1994 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
1993 Division of Cultural Affairs, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
1993 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan<br />
1992 Foster Harmon Gallery, Sarasota, Florida<br />
Jaffe/Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida<br />
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
1991 Gloria Luria Gallery, Florida Center for the Arts,<br />
Vero Beach, Florida<br />
1990 Foster Harmon Gallery, Florida<br />
1990 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago<br />
Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia<br />
Gillian Jason Gallery, London<br />
1989 New Art Centre, London<br />
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida<br />
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bal Harbour, Florida<br />
1988 Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida<br />
Charleston College, South Carolina<br />
1986 Foster Harmon Gallery, Sarasota, Florida<br />
Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, Florida<br />
1985 Metropolitan Museum, Coral Gates, Miami, Florida<br />
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bal Harbour, Florida<br />
1984 Big Magenta installation, Florida State University<br />
Center for Professional Development, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
1983 Shaped Work from the 60’s<br />
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
1982 National Academy of Science, Washington DC<br />
Artspace, Miami, Florida<br />
1981 Intimate Works on Paper, Virginia Miller Gallery,<br />
Coral Gables, Florida<br />
Artspace, Miami, Florida<br />
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida<br />
1980 Five Bar exhibited, Florida State University, Florida<br />
Four Arts Institute for Contemporary Art<br />
Florida State University, Florida<br />
1975 Southern Cross exhibited, Bundestag, Bonn, Germany<br />
1974 Corcoran Gallery, Washington<br />
1973 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London<br />
1970 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh<br />
Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast<br />
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield<br />
1969 Indulgences and Disciplines; works on paper<br />
Lancaster University & Greenwich Theatre Gallery, London<br />
1963 Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford<br />
1961 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles<br />
1958 Waddington Gallery, London<br />
(3 subsequent exhibitions in 1960, 1962 and 1964)
Selected Public Collections<br />
Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal<br />
Aberdeen Art Gallery<br />
Arts Council of Great Britain<br />
American Express<br />
Astra Zeneca, Boston, Massachusetts<br />
Balliol College, Oxford<br />
British Council<br />
British Museum<br />
Broward County Courthouse, Florida<br />
Clearwater Federal, Clearwater, Florida<br />
Coca-Cola World Headquarters, Florida<br />
Contemporary Arts Society<br />
Department of Management Services, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
Department of Transportation, Fort Lauderdale, Florida<br />
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell<br />
Education Authority, Hull<br />
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall<br />
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Georgia<br />
Florida House of Representatives, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
Florida Power and Light, Miami, Florida<br />
Florida State University Museum, Florida<br />
Getty Center for the History of Art, Los Angeles, California<br />
IBM Collection, Atlanta, Boca Raton, Florida and New York<br />
John Lewis Group<br />
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle<br />
Leeds City Museum<br />
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery<br />
Leon County Civic Center, Tallahassee, Florida<br />
McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada<br />
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida<br />
Nett Bank, Florida<br />
Northwest Regional Data Center, State University System, Florida<br />
Orlando Aviation Authority, Florida<br />
Park Bank, Sarasota, Florida<br />
Pegasus Solutions, Dallas Texas<br />
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Florida<br />
Philips International, Eindhoven, Holland<br />
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona<br />
Playboy Corporation Collection, Chicago<br />
Polk Museum, Florida<br />
Prudential Insurance Collection<br />
Regency Group Collection<br />
Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida<br />
Rouse Company Collection<br />
Rugby Library, Gallery & Museum<br />
Shearson Lehman Hutton Collection, New York<br />
Slaughter and May, London<br />
Southern Bell, Jacksonville, Florida<br />
St Anne’s College, Oxford<br />
St Catherine’s College, Oxford<br />
Tate Gallery, London<br />
Terence Disdale Design<br />
Trinity College, Oxford<br />
University of Leeds<br />
University of Stirling<br />
University of Sussex, Brighton<br />
UVU Keleia Collection, Ljubljana<br />
Victoria & Albert Museum, London<br />
Wakefield City Art Gallery<br />
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester<br />
Numerous private collections in Europe, Canada and the United States<br />
Awards<br />
Paris Biennale Major Prize Winner<br />
Gregory Fellow, Leeds University<br />
Italian Government Scholarship<br />
Florida Art Fellowship<br />
Emeritus Professor, Florida State University<br />
Honorary R.W.A<br />
Honorary Fellow, University College Falmouth<br />
Further Reading<br />
Trevor Bell, A British Painter In America, Ed., A Palladino-Craig published<br />
by Florida State University, ISBN 1-889282-14-6<br />
Trevor Bell by Chris Stephens & Elizabeth Knowles, published by<br />
Sanson & Company, ISBN 978-1-904537-88-5<br />
Catalogue published by Waterhouse & Dodd<br />
Introductory ext and design by Jamie Anderson<br />
Printed by ArtQuarters Press<br />
Photography by Steve Tanner (St Ives)<br />
Additional images by Todd White (London) / Ali Elai (New York)<br />
Location and installation images credited in caption<br />
All artwork images copyright of the artist<br />
Back cover image<br />
Poppy, 2012<br />
Acrylic on panel<br />
33 x 35.5 in / 86 x 90 cm
www.waterhousedodd.com
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