Trevor Bell at Eighty

T R E V O R B E L L AT E I G H T Y
E A RT H A I R F I R E WAT E R A E T H E R

“I think about things that excite me: convoluted strata, the eroded and
broken edges of cliffs, the constant interaction of the elements, the
movement of boats on water…
I think about the object and its inner image; the activity of each and
the play between the two and I try to be straight forward to remove
unnecessary information.
For all the theorizing, formal and conceptual notions, the truth
of the matter is that I see myself as a conduit - the titles come
afterwards so that I don’t impose myself on the work as it goes along.
Then I leave it alone.
I have been saying the same thing all my working life, just in
different ways.”
This was written for my 2002 Lydon Contemporary exhibition in
Chicago and here I am in 2010 realizing that whatever I might conjure
up - I could not, and should not say more.
Trevor Bell
2010
1

Introduction
It is an enormous privilege to be showcasing this extraordinary
exhibition of new work by Trevor Bell to commemorate his
eightieth birthday.
As I write these words, with raw memory having recently arrived
back from the studio, having been confronted by this monumental
collection, I have to pinch myself to re-register that this giant of
20th and now 21st Century painting has created these paintings
unaided at such a grand age. However whilst marveling at the brave
and youthful energy of the physical gestural mark making it is clear
that they could only have been achieved to such effect aided by
the wisdom and confidence of advanced experience. Such a rare
combination is incredibly inspiring, indeed moving.
This afternoon whilst at the studio I pointed to a photograph of Bell
working on an epic painting standing some two stories high taken
whilst in the USA some years ago. “I’ve still got it in me you know ”
Bell enforced, with that steely (now familiar) look with associated
glint in the eye. I have no doubt about it.
The work itself needs no further introduction by me - the
exhibition title suggests enough, and of course the paintings themselves
say it all, when seen and when felt. I have however placed extracts
from selected texts written about Bell’s works over the years by way
of paying homage to this important occasion and to a remarkable
man who’s life time has been spent making work of such impact
and timeless relevance.
Joseph Clarke
2010
2

Windance mixed media on board and ply wood 117 x 100 cm
3

4

Windance Duet mixed media on board and ply wood 107 x 193 cm
5

6

The Spontaneity that we have idolised since the coming
of Romanticism as the hallmark of sincerity and creative drive
is here replaced by a tactical skill that marshals pictorial
elements and firmly controls them without denying them their
individual life.
Norbert Lynton
Art Critic and Historian
New Statesman, 1964
Windance Three mixed media on board and ply wood 101 x 98 cm
7

8
Swell mixed media on board and ply wood 109 x 190 cm

9

10

Split mixed media on board and ply wood 110 x 240 cm
11

12
Gust mixed media on board and ply wood 52 x 112 cm

Voyage mixed media on board and ply wood 116 x 285 cm
13

14

Trevor Bell’s paintings cover a range wider than most artists
would think prudent. What makes them so interesting is that his
themes run parallel rather than in strict sequence... But after
experiencing surprise at the difference of the works one begins
to understand their basic and persistent themes and finds a strong
sense of continuity... From 1960 - 1963 Bell was making paintings
whose interior shapes referred to landscape - but to the forces
as much as to the forms of landscape; and it was this concern for
what is best described as dynamics which led him naturally into
an investigation of the mechanisms of painting itself.
John Elderfield
Head Curator of MOMA New York and Art Historian
1970
Knife mixed media on canvas 72 x 83 cm
15

One of the most important painters working anywhere today
is Trevor Bell... As far as I am concerned [Bell’s paintings] are
far and away the most original and successful shaped canvas
paintings - which remain paintings - to have been produced
anywhere. But the task of justifying this judgement and of
explaining, even to myself, the reasons for their very great
power and beauty is daunting in the extreme, because so much
about their construction, their literal appearance and colour, is
unique and therefor outside existing terms of formal comparison
and analysis.
Patrick Heron
Artist
1970
Ancient mixed media on canvas 72 x 83 cm
16

17

18

Works on paper and studies for paintings stand up well on
their own, showing careful thought that underlines the blazing
paintings... With their disarming appearance of irresponsible
spontaneity. A tough, experienced and travelled sensibility has
been at work, making light-filled glowing paintings which flirt
interestingly somewhere between stridency and serenity.
Marina Vaizey
Art Critic, Author, Curator, Broadcaster
Financial Times, 1973
Big Oval mixed media on canvas 212 x 261 cm
19

20
Heel mixed media on canvas 196 x 211 cm

21

22

Bell has chosen to set before us images which, in part, are
to do with the energy of human touch set against a pictorial
space which evokes the painting tradition of evocations of the
sublime. In this way, encouragingly and honestly naive in our
contemporary culture which values such feelings below the
cynical and the pessimistic, Bell reflects the optimism which has
always underpinned the best abstract art.
Michael Tooby
Gallery Director and Curator
Tate Gallery St. Ives catalogue, 1999
Stop mixed media on canvas 163 x 158 cm
23

24
Spike mixed media on canvas 161 x 165 cm

25

26

Breaker mixed media on canvas 161 x 165 cm
27

Bell’s immediate surroundings, and the craggy Cornish coastline
in particular, provided important stimuli for his abstractions.
Like the early Kandinsky, he often derived his motifs from the
landscape, then distilled them to the point where their origins are
obscured but not lost.
Helen A Harrison
Art Critic and Historian
New York Times, 2002
Rock mixed media on canvas 163 x 158 cm
28

29

30

Danger mixed media on canvas 161 x 165 cm
31

Bell’s art is, in the loosest sense, spiritual. It evokes, or reflects,
an idea of some abstract force that exceeds material reality...
In this sense, we can see his art as solidly rooted in the values
of 1950’s St. Ives, where artists sought to salvage the fantasy
of utopian modernism for the post-war world through a reengagement
with nature. The dangers and losses of the modern
world would be compensated through the rediscovery of natural
order and process, and a renewed sense of individual identity
would be established through the exploration of forces larger
than ourselves. Bell’s work, one might say, has always derived in
one way or another from this new sublime.
Chris Stephens
Head of Displays at Tate Britain
Modern Painters, 2000
Float mixed media on canvas 163 x 158 cm
32

33

34
Cheer mixed media on board 59 x 59 x 10 cm

Cheeky mixed media on board 55 x 55 x 10 cm
35

Trevor Bell
Born in Leeds 1930, Currently living in Cornwall.
Solo Exhibitions
2010 Trevor Bell at Eighty - Earth Air Fire Water Aether
2009 Haste Slowly, Millennium, St.Ives
Nothing Extra, Leeds University Gallery
Moving Right Along, Waterhouse & Dodd, London
2007 White and Colour, New Millennium Gallery, St Ives
2006 Before Sea, After Earth, Waterhouse & Dodd, London
Large Works, Waterhouse & Dodd, London
Saïd Gallery, Oxford
2005 Still – The New Paintings, Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
Trevor Bell: Heatscape – The Florida Six and Still – The New Paintings,
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth
Calm Squares, Allusive Forms, New Millennium Gallery, St Ives
Recent Work, Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
2004/5 Trevor Bell: Beyond Materiality, Tate Gallery, St Ives
2003 New Millennium Gallery, St Ives
Trevor Bell: A British Painter in America, Florida State University
Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida
The Gulf Coast Museum, Largo, Florida
2002 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
Galerie Pelar Ltd, Greenport, New York
Seven Worchester, Bath
2001 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
New Millennium Gallery, St Ives
2000 North Light Gallery, Huddersfield
1999 Stephen Lacey Gallery, London
1998 Hodgell Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
Falmouth College of Arts, Falmouth
1996 Illinois Centre, Chicago
1995 Art Collectors Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida
Mercantile Exchange Building, Chicago
Marsha Orr Contemporary Fine Art, Tallahassee, Florida
1994 Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
1993 Division of Cultural Affairs, Tallahassee, Florida
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
Lin & Keng Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan
1992 Foster Harmon Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
Jaffe/Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida
1992 621 Gallery, Tallahassee, Florida
1991 Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami
Florida Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida
1990 Foster Harmon Gallery, Florida
Lydon Fine Art, Chicago
Eve Mannes Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
Gillian Jason Gallery, London
1989 New Art Centre, London
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bal Harbour, Florida
1988 Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Charleston College, South Carolina
1986 Foster Harmon Gallery, Sarasota, Florida
Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, Florida
1985 Metropolitan Museum, Coral Gates, Miami, Florida
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bal Harbour, Florida
1984 Big Magenta installation, Florida State University Center for
Professional Development, Tallahassee, Florida
1983 Shaped Work from the 60s, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
1982 National Academy of Science, Washington DC
Artspace, Miami, Florida
1981 Intimate Works on Paper, Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida
Artspace, Miami, Florida
University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida
1980 Five Bar exhibited, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Four Arts Center, ICA, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Major Works. Virginia Miller Gallery, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida
1975 Southern Cross exhibited, Bundestag, Bonn, Germany
1974 Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C.
1973 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1970 Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh
Arts Council of Northern Ireland Gallery, Belfast
Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
Park Square Gallery, Leeds
1969 Lancaster University Greenwich Gallery, London
1964 Waddington Gallery, London
1962 Waddington Gallery, London
1963 Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford
1960 Waddington Gallery, London
1958 Waddington Gallery, London
36

Selected Public Collections
Abbot Hall Gallery, Kendal
Aberdeen Art Gallery
Arts Council of Great Britain
American Express
Astra Zeneca, Boston, Massachussetts
Balliol College, Oxford
Nett Bank, Florida
British Council
British Museum
Broward County Courthouse, Florida
Clearwater Federal, Clearwater, Florida
Coca-Cola World Headquarters, Florida
Contemporary Arts Society
Department of Management Services, Tallahassee, Florida
Department of Transportation, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell
Education Authority, Hull
Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Georgia
Florida House of Representatives, Tallahassee, Florida
Florida Power and Light, Miami, Florida
Florida State University Museum, Florida
Getty Center for the History of Art, Los Angeles, California
IBM Collection, Atlanta, Boca Raton, Florida and New York
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
Leeds City Museum
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery
Leon County Civic Center, Tallahassee, Florida
McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Northwest Regional Data Center, State University System, Florida
Orlando Aviation Authority, Florida
Park Bank, Sarasota, Florida
Pegasus Solutions, Dallas Texas
Philips International, Eindhoven, Holland
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
Playboy Corporation Collection, Chicago
Polk Museum, Florida
Prudential Insurance Collection
Regency Group Collection
Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida
Rouse Company Collection
Rugby Library, Gallery & Museum
Shearson Lehman Hutton Collection, New York
Slaughter and May, London
Southern Bell, Jacksonville, Florida
St Anne’s College, Oxford
St Catherine’s College, Oxford
Tate Gallery, London
Trinity College, Oxford
University of Leeds
University of Stirling
University of Sussex, Brighton
UVU Keleia Collection, Ljubljana
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Wakefield City Art Gallery
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
John Lewis Group
Terence Disdale Design
Numerous private collections in Europe, Canada and the United States
Prizes and Fellowships
Paris Biennale Major Prize Winner
Gregory Fellow, Leeds University
Italian Government Scholarship
Florida Art Fellowship
Emeritus Professor, Florida State University
Honorary R.W.A
Honorary Fellow, University College Falmouth
Further Reading
Trevor Bell by Chris Stephens, published by Sanson & Company,
ISBN 978-1-904537-88-5
All works in this exhibition 2008 - 2010
37

“This work is a celebration of life and the act of painting. Walk up
close and allow the paintings to fill your peripheral vision - feel
the physicality of the experience. Their image sense is potent.”
Lynne Green
Writer, Publisher and former Director of Southampton Art Gallery
Trevor Bell : Both Ends of The Stream, 2009
Ogam mixed media on canvas 148 x 200 cm
38

39

40

Art does not make social statements, but contributes to society
on a deeper, less tangible level. I feel that what we should get
from art is a sense of wonder, of something beyond ourselves,
that celebrates our ‘being’ here.
Trevor Bell
Modern Painters
2002

Published by Millennium to coincide with the exhibition ‘ Trevor Bell at Eighty - Earth Air Fire Water Aether’
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers
Photography by Steve Tanner
Printed by St Austell Printing Company (www.sapc.co.uk)
ISBN 978-1-905772-37-7
M I L L E N N I U M
S t r e e t - a n - P o l
S t . I v e s
C o r n w a l l
0 1 7 3 6 7 9 3 1 2 1
m a i l @ m i l l e n n i u m g a l l e r y. c o . u k
w w w . m i l l e n n i u m g a l l e r y. c o . u k