About this artwork
Pasmore's art of the 1930s and 1940s was ardently figurative but in 1948 he suddenly began painting abstract works. This work is one of a series of about six paintings made between 1950 and 1952 that the artist based on a spiral motif. Composed of organic swirls suggesting natural forms, Pasmore described them as landscapes of the mind: 'What I have done is not the result of a process of abstraction in front of nature, but a method of construction emanating from within'. He made a vast ceramic mural of similar design for the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition, held in London.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Victor Pasmore (1908 - 1998) English
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title:Spiral Motif (Subjective Landscape) in Black and White
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date created:1951
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materials:Oil on wood
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measurements:80.60 x 22.00 cm; Framed: 106.30 x 45.20 x 6.50 cm / 9.00 kg
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased (Knapping Fund) 1963
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accession number:GMA 833
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Victor Pasmore
Victor Pasmore
Although largely self-taught as an artist, Pasmore was a key figure in British art. He exhibited with the London Group from 1931 and it was around then that he first flirted with abstraction. Yet he swiftly destroyed his early experimentations and instead gained recognition as a naturalistic...