Frederick John Pym Gore

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

RA (8 November 1913 – 31 August 2009), was an English painter.

Biography

Gore was born into the world of art; his father, Spencer Frederick Gore, was a painter, President of the

Camden Town Group The Camden Town Group was a group of English Post-Impressionist artists founded in 1911 and active until 1913. They gathered frequently at the studio of painter Walter Sickert in the Camden Town area of London. History In 1908, critic Frank ...

until his early death in March 1914, and his mother, Mary Joanna (Molly) Kerr, was a dancer from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. As a young man Gore's ambition was to be a philosopher, but as a student at

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

(following in the steps of his great uncle Bishop

Charles Gore Charles Gore (22 January 1853 – 17 January 1932) was a Church of England bishop, first of Worcester, then Birmingham, and finally of Oxford. He was one of the most influential Anglican theologians of the 19th century, helping reconcile the c ...

), he soon found that his real passion was for drawing and painting at the

Ruskin School of Art The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division. History The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...

which he attended almost daily. Leaving Oxford, and arriving in London, Gore trained at the

Slade Slade are an English rock band formed in Wolverhampton in 1966. They rose to prominence during the glam rock era in the early 1970s, achieving 17 consecutive top 20 hits and six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The ''British Hit Singles ...

under

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a caricaturist. He became an influential art teacher. He was one of the first British arti ...

and at the

Westminster School of Art The Westminster School of Art was an art school in Westminster, London. History The Westminster School of Art was located at 18 Tufton Street, Deans Yard, Westminster, and was part of the old Royal Architectural Museum. H. M. Bateman described ...

with Mark Gertler and Polunin from whom he learnt the flat-on-the-floor method of painting backdrops for the theatre: most useful later on when as an active member of the Balalaika Dance Group as dancer and organiser of events, he enhanced their productions with his professional expertise. He wrote a very successful folk ballet. Pre-World War II, his career took off when a Greek patron saw his work and asked him to spend a year travelling and painting in Greece. Visits and extended sojourns to France followed, and an exhibition at Gallery Borghese in Paris in 1938 when Vauxelles called him the English fauve. Soon after, however, he was forced to leave and return to the UK. During World War II, Gore was

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

officer for the south-east and helped prepare the troops for the D-Day invasion. In 1946, he began teaching at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of ...

, where he was Head of Painting from 1951 until 1979. In 1961 he was appointed Vice-Principal of Saint Martin's until he retired from the post in 1979.The International Who's Who 2004 by Elizabeth Sleeman, Routledge, 2003 , (Page 632) His students and colleagues there included many of the most accomplished artists of the twentieth century who continue to acknowledge the encouragement they received from Gore. Summer months for many years were spent painting outside: on the Greek islands of

Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...

(1950s) and later on

Aegina Aegina (; el, Αίγινα, ''Aígina'' ; grc, Αἴγῑνα) is one of the Saronic Islands of Greece in the Saronic Gulf, from Athens. Tradition derives the name from Aegina, the mother of the hero Aeacus, who was born on the island and ...

. Then during the 1960s, the rich hinterland of Majorca, followed by the brilliantly-lit landscapes of

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. He exhibited at the Redfern Gallery until they took to abstract art, the Juster Gallery (NY), Fosse, Lavenham, Richmond Hill Gallery – always keeping his independence to exhibit wherever he so wanted. Gore was a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (1967–1984), and was Chairman of its Artistic Records Committee (1972–1986). In 1972, Gore was elected as a Royal Academician, and from 1976 to 1987 he was Chairman of the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibitions Committee. In 1980, Gore visited the US for the first time to deliver a dissertation at the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, New Haven, Connecticut. Staying en route in New York he was so exhilarated by its exciting light and ambience that since then he visited almost yearly. He made an important contribution as a figurative painter with an enormous experience of paint, composition and colour to show the vitality of the US, when American artists had mostly turned to abstraction and were exploring painterly possibilities in a different direction. Gore was made

in 1987. In 1991 he designed a series of posters for the London Transport Museum. His last solo exhibition was at the Richmond Hill Gallery, London (January 2009). His published books include "Abstract Art", "Painting: Some Basic Principles" and "The Baptism, Piero della Francesca";London, Cassell, 1969. , he is also the author of an unpublished translation of poems by Baudelaire. Gore died age 95 on 31 August 2009. He is buried in

Brompton Cemetery Brompton Cemetery (originally the West of London and Westminster Cemetery) is a London cemetery, managed by The Royal Parks, in West Brompton in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. Establ ...

Personal life

Frederick Gore had a son and two daughters - Dr. Charles David Gore, Dr. Georgiana Sarah Gore, and Geraldine Lucy Gore. His wife Constance (Connie) survived him.

Works

References

External links

The Government Art Collection

Southampton City Art Gallery

The Bridgeman Art Library

Fosse Gallery

War paint: art, war, state and identity in Britain, 1939–1945, Issue 8846 By Brian Foss (Page 16) on Google Books

– The Times obituary
Frederick Gore
– Daily Telegraph obituary

– Guardian obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Gore, Frederick 1913 births 2009 deaths People educated at Lancing College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford 20th-century British painters British male painters 21st-century British painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Royal Academicians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Middlesex Regiment officers British Army personnel of World War II Burials at Brompton Cemetery Camoufleurs Academics of Saint Martin's School of Art Alumni of the Ruskin School of Art 20th-century British male artists 21st-century British male artists