Geoffrey Arthur Tibble (27 February 1909''1939 England and Wales Register'' – 15 December 1952) was an English artist prominent in the Objective Abstraction movement.

Early life and studies

Tibble was born in 1909 in

Reading, Berkshire Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...

, and was educated at the Reading University School of Art. At age 18, he entered the

Slade School The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

, London in 1927 under

Henry Tonks Henry Tonks, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, FRCS (9 April 1862 – 8 January 1937) was a British surgeon and later draughtsman and painter of figure subjects, chiefly interiors, and a Caricature, caricaturist. He became an influentia ...

, where he was a contemporary of William Coldstream.

Career in art

Tibble was a significant figure in the short-lived Objective Abstraction movement. In 1934, Tibble exhibited abstract works at the Exhibition of Objective Abstractions at the Zwemmer Gallery, London (works described as "vortices in pigment, suggesting rather than representing something in nature") He later destroyed or overpainted most of the works from this abstract period.London Group: Works By Young Artists, ''The Times'', London, 3 November 1953. After briefly experimenting with

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, by 1937 he had returned to

figurative painting Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork (particularly paintings and sculptures) that is clearly derived from real object sources and so is, by definition, representational. The term is often in contrast to abstract a ...

, moving toward the Euston Road School of urban realism founded by William Coldstream.Look back on anger - Arts, John Russell Taylor, ''The Times'', London, 27 November 2002. In 1944 he became a member of the New English Art Club. He also exhibited with the London Group, after his military service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Tibble had his first solo exhibition at Tooth's Gallery in 1946, showing 25 paintings, all interiors with figures, a format that became his signature style and developed his wider reputation. These were critically acclaimed for their "remarkable assurance, the certainty of aim and economy of means" and their resemblance to the work of Degas. He subsequently exhibited at leading London galleries, including the

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

and Lefevre galleries. Tibble died in

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, from Aylesbury and from High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

on 15 December 1952, aged only 43. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Critical reception

A review of a retrospective exhibition said "His work—dingy but packed with period atmosphere—looks back towards the intimate interiors of Vuillard, and forward to the domestic squalor of the

Kitchen Sink School Kitchen sink realism (or kitchen sink drama) is a British cultural movement that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art, novels, film and television plays, whose protagonists usually could be described as "angry young men" w ...

".''The Sunday Telegraph'' (United Kingdom): Art, Martin Gayford, ''Sunday Telegraph'', London, December 1, 2002

References

;Secondary sources *''Geoffrey Tibble. Wives & Daughters'', Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London (2002) *''Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue'', City of Manchester Art Gallery, (1958)

External links

Works by Geoffrey Tibble in Tate Britain
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tibble, Geoffrey 1909 births 1952 deaths 20th-century English painters Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the University of Reading Artists from Reading, Berkshire British military personnel of World War II English male painters Painters from London 20th-century English male artists