John Ernest (May 6, 1922 – July 21, 1994) was an American-born constructivist abstract artist. He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, in 1922. After living and working in Sweden and Paris from 1946 to 1951, he moved to London,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, where he lived and worked from 1951. As a mature student 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 t ...

he came under the influence of

Victor Pasmore Edwin John Victor Pasmore, CH, CBE (3 December 190823 January 1998) was a British artist. He pioneered the development of abstract art in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s. Early life Pasmore was born in Chelsham, Surrey, on 3 December 1908. He ...

and other proponents of

constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

. During the 1950s together with Anthony Hill, Kenneth Martin,

Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in '' South Pacific'' (194 ...

, Stephen Gilbert and

Gillian Wise Gillian Mary Wise (16 February 1936 – 11 April 2020) was a British artist devoted to the application of concepts of rationality and aesthetic order to abstract paintings and reliefs. Between 1972 and 1990 she was known as Gillian Wise Ci ...

he became a key member of the British constructivist (a.k.a. constructionist) art movement. Ernest created both reliefs and free standing constructions. Several of his works are held at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

, including the Moebius Strip sculpture. He designed both a tower and a large wall relief at the

International Union of Architects The International Union of Architects ( French: ''Union internationale des Architectes''; UIA) is the only international non-governmental organization that represents the world's architects, now estimated to number some 3.2 million in all. About ...

congress, South Bank, London, 1961. The exhibition structure also housed works by several of the other British constructivists. Ernest had a lifelong fascination with mathematics that is reflected in his work, and together with constructivist artist Anthony Hill he made contributions to

graph theory In mathematics, graph theory is the study of ''graphs'', which are mathematical structures used to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph in this context is made up of '' vertices'' (also called ''nodes'' or ''points'') which are conne ...

, studying crossing numbers of

complete graph In the mathematical field of graph theory, a complete graph is a simple undirected graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is connected by a unique edge. A complete digraph is a directed graph in which every pair of distinct vertices is c ...

s. Ernest was an atheist."A "practising" atheist, he was a person of great wit, warmth, generosity and hope." Terry Pope, 'Obituary: John Ernest', The Guardian (London), August 18, 1994, Features, Pg. T1

References

1922 births 1994 deaths American atheists American emigrants to the United Kingdom Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Artists from Philadelphia Mathematical artists American expatriates in Sweden American expatriates in France {{US-artist-stub