Trevor Bell 'Link'

T R E V O R B E L L

T R E V O R B E L L

L I N K

To write on the paintings of Trevor Bell 

is both a joy and challenge. For decades, 

Trevor Bell has delighted and enriched us 

with his passion for painting, mastery of 

gesture and sublime colour. The recent 

paintings, so evocative of the changing 

moods of nature and light, are a breath 

of fresh air and breathtaking Trevor ’s 

exuberance, energy and enthusiasm for 

life and painting are evident, as are his 

ongoing innovation and individuality. My brief 

words are a personal response to these 

recent works. 

I recently viewed his painting ‘Light 

Trap’, presently on view at the Ringling 

Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida in a 

gallery devoted to ‘Luminosity ’. In his 

exhibition literature, curator Matthew 

McLendon writes on “the color of light” 

and paintings that “explore the interactions 

of large planes of colour”. He says “artists 

sought to exploit the tensions, the ebb and 

flow of sensations as washes of color that 

were juxtaposed with one another ”. The 

exhibition ‘Luminosity ’, works from the 

collection, and the recent installation of James 

Turrell’s skyspace ‘Joseph’s Coat’ celebrate 

light and color, as does ‘Light Trap’. The 1981 

painting is a seminal Florida work, influenced 

and inspired by light and luminosity. 

At the Millennium, the recent paintings are a 

visual orchestration of shape, surface, form, 

gesture, texture, colour and mood. From 

pearly white to bible black, with blues and 

oranges, colour is used in rich resonance 

and evocative elegance. Paintings range 

from dark and sombre to light and joyous. 

Black and mysterious, ‘ Tsu’ comes from 

seeing Japanese pots in the Asia Society, 

New York. Yet the work is not illustrative 

of, but inspired by that experience and 

has a unique, ominous presence. Another 

painting ‘Night Voyage’ is rich and resonant 

with dark blue, black gesture and white 

form. The mystery of mood and purity of 

painting is evident in these works, each 

different and distinctive. ‘Blue Dancer ’, 

‘Breaker ’, ‘Depths’, ‘Gust’, ‘Marine’ and 

‘Squall’ may be titles evocative of nature, 

yet the paintings are pure abstraction. For 

the past hundred years, painting no longer 

illustrates or copies nature but is liberated 

to deal with visual choreography, evident 

throughout this work. Trevor has travelled 

extensively and writes of his experiences 

from journeys in the Himalayas to the 

Florida launching of an Apollo spacecraft. All 

have influenced him, most of all his living 

in Cornwall where sky, sea, surf, storms, 

rock, cliff and elements offer ever changing 

contrast, discord and harmony.

Bell is responsive to his surroundings yet his 

art remains universal and time less. What 

more canbe said about these works that 

celebrate painting and speak to us 

so eloquently. 

Much has been written on the painting 

of Trevor Bell with many catalogues and 

countless essays published over the years. 

Insights are gained through the writings of 

many distinguished critics and artists. ‘Trevor 

Bell: a British painter in America’ is a catalogue 

of the 2003 exhibition organised by Florida 

State University with many essays. My own 

writings conclude “Trevor Bell has proved 

himself a significant and heroic painter who 

believes in the joy of painting. He has become 

a virtuoso of colour and an orchestrator of 

light. Thrust and gesture open up new and 

total realisations of space and sensation. His 

painting is to be enjoyed and acclaimed”. This 

2012 exhibition is an opportunity to look 

anew with appreciation and awe at the work 

of this master painter at his zenith. Enjoy! 

My attitudes (over time) have placed specific 

emphasis on the ‘object on the wall’ versus 

the neutral area of the traditional canvas. 

With regards to differences in approach to 

the external form (‘rounds’ and ‘rectilinears’), 

present throughout my career and together in 

this exhibition, I see them both being 

paintings but with either ‘pacific contours’ or 

‘active contours’. In another sense you could 

say ‘with or without corners‘. The former 

being more open to implications of depth 

and implied external space which can freely 

develop an image, whereas the latter draws 

attention to it’s own fact and object nature and 

so is a holistic image in it’s own right. After so 

many periods of developing both types of 

work independently, I have found that recently 

working, once again on a pacific canvas to be 

a reclaimed freedom, but as a parallel to the 

slower more considered rounds, but either 

must generate a revealed presence and the 

feeling and realisation for that is the reason 

for working. 

Roy Slade, Florida 2012 

Director Emeritus of Cranbrook Art Museum 

& former Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art 

Trevor Bell, 2012

6

Storm Out There 

mixed media on canvas . 195 x 210 cm 

7

Quiet Sand 


8

9

10

Blue Dancer 


11

Spring White 

mixed media on board . 117 x 120 cm 

12

Tsu 


13

Mooring 


14

Wrengame 


15

Peak 


Flier 


16

Shuffle 


Tribe 


17

18

Iron 


19

Sea 


20

21

22

Squall 


23

Breaker 


24

25

26

Hammer 


27

Leading Light 


28

Marine 


29

Night Voyage 


30

Gust 


31

32

Depths 


33

Dawn 


34

35

36

Bay 


37

38 

Trias 

mixed media on canvas . 152 x 243 cm

39

Trevor Bell was born in Leeds in 1930. He 

was awarded a scholarship to attend The 

Leeds College of Art from 1947 to 1952 and, 

encouraged by Terry Frost, moved to Cornwall 

in 1955. St Ives was the epicentre for British 

abstract art being the home to artists such as 

Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, 

Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Terry Frost, 

he made his reputation as a leading member who 

helped establish British Art on the international 

stage. From these artists, especially Nicholson, Bell 

received advice and support. Nicholson, alongside 

his then dealer Charles Gimpel, encouraged him 

to show in London and Waddington Galleries gave 

Bell his first solo exhibition in 1958. Patrick Heron 

wrote the introduction to the exhibition catalogue, 

stating that Bell was ‘the best non-figurative painter 

under thirty’. 

In 1959 Bell was awarded the Paris Biennale 

International Painting Prize, and an Italian 

Government Scholarship and the following 

year was offered the Fellowship in Painting at 

the University of Leeds so moved back to his 

hometown, Bell went on to become a Gregory 

Fellow at Leeds University. It was during this period 

that Bell developed his shaped canvases, setting 

his work apart from other artists of his generation. 

Throughout the 1960’s Bell showed work 

in major exhibitions in the UK and USA and 

during this time his work was first purchased for 

the Tate collection. In 1973 he presented his 

new work at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, 

having just taken part in a major exhibition at the 

Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. Over the 

course of the next thirty years Bell combined 

painting with teaching in various locations 

eventually moving to Florida State University 

in 1976 to become the Professor for Master 

Painting. Here with the provision of a 

warehouse sized studio and time to really develop 

his painting he produced the large-scale, intensely 

coloured works for which he is known, reflecting 

the influence of the climate and landscape on him 

and his work. He went on to spend the next 

20 years in America. Important exhibitions were 

held at the Corcoran Gallery and the Academy of 

Sciences in Washington, the Metropolitan Museum 

in Miami, The Cummer Gallery and the Museum of 

Art, Florida. 

In 1985 Bell was included in the London Tate 

Gallery’s St Ives 1939-64 exhibition and in 1993 

he was part of the inaugural show of the Tate St 

Ives, where he was again re-established as part 

of the St Ives artists movement. He moved back 

to Cornwall in 1996 which began his long-term 

relationship with the Millennium. Bell had a major 

solo exhibition at the Tate St.Ives in 2004 and in 

2011 a further 14 works were obtained by the Tate 

Gallery for their permanent collection. 

Bell has had works purchased and commissioned 

by numerous other international museums and 

public and private collections including (among 

others) The Arts Council of England, British 

Council, British Museum, Boca Raton, Laing Art 

Gallery, Ljubljana’s U.V.U Keleia Collection and the 

Victoria & Albert Museum. 

Bell is twice a recipient of fellowships from the Fine 

Arts Council of Florida, an Honorary RWA from 

the Royal Western England Academy, An Honoury 

Fellow of University College Falmouth and an 

Emeritus Professorship by Florida State University.

Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘Link’ by Trevor Bell 

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Interview Film by Alban Roinard and Joseph Clarke 

ISBN 978-1-905772-52-0 

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Trevor Bell 'Link'

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