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William Gear
William Gear RA RBSA (2 August 1915 – 27 February 1997) was a Scottish painter, most notable for his abstract compositions.
Gear was born in Methil in south-east Fife, Scotland, the son of Janet (1886–1955) and Porteous Gear (1881–1965), a coal miner. He attended Buckhaven High School where he won the Dux Arts Medal (1932). From 1932 to 1936 he studied at Edinburgh College of Art where fellow students included Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Margaret Mellis.
He first exhibited in 1934 with the Royal Scottish Academy and Society of Scottish Artists, and his postgraduate scholarship (1936–37) included history of art studies with Professor David Talbot Rice at the University of Edinburgh.
Awarded a travelling scholarship (1937–38), Gear visited France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Turkey. This trip included a stay in Paris studying with Fernand Léger. At summer school in Arbroath (1938) he met Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. A brief interest in Surrealism led him to exhibit with the New Era Group in Edinburgh in 1939.
Called up for military service in 1940, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1941, during World War II Gear served with the Royal Corps of Signals. He met Merlyn Evans in Durban, en route to his first posting in the Middle East. Gear subsequently served in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Cyprus, before participating in the Allied invasion of Italy, where in Siena and Florence he held his first solo exhibitions in 1944. After VE Day he worked for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied Control Commission, with responsibility for securing art works in Lower Saxony in the British Zone of occupied postwar Germany. During his travels through Europe he also worked to promote local artists suffering from wartime deprivations, including Karl Otto Götz.
Between 1947 and 1950 Gear lived and worked in Paris, where he met Eduardo Paolozzi, Alan Davie, Stephen Gilbert and many of the leading post-war generation of Parisian artists including Atlan, Da Silva, De Staël, Dubuffet, Hartung, Mathieu, Pignon, Poliakoff, Schoffer, Singier, Soulages and Zadkine. In 1948 he held his first Paris and London solo exhibitions, and visited Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon and Bryan Winter in St Ives. After meeting Appel, Constant, Corneille, and Jorn, he joined and exhibited with the North European avant-garde CoBrA art group in Amsterdam during 1949. That year he also co-exhibited with Jackson Pollock in New York, married an American citizen, Charlotte Chertok (1920–88), and his son David was born. While holidaying in Brittany in 1950, he was visited by William Scott.
In 1950 William Gear moved with his family to England (Loosley Row, Buckinghamshire), and in response to an Arts Council invitation to produce a work for its "Sixty Paintings for '51" exhibition, he painted "Autumn Landscape", now in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. When the work was awarded a Festival of Britain purchase prize in 1951, the result was a public furore. Following a further move to the nearby Speen Farm (Flowers Bottom, Buckinghamshire), his son Robert was born the same year.
In 1952, Gear produced the notable works, 'Early Spring' and 'March Landscape', both paintings similar in style, with abstract organic shapes in vibrant blues and greens. 'Early Spring' remained in the collection of Gear and remained with his Estate after he died.
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William Gear
William Gear RA RBSA (2 August 1915 – 27 February 1997) was a Scottish painter, most notable for his abstract compositions.
Gear was born in Methil in south-east Fife, Scotland, the son of Janet (1886–1955) and Porteous Gear (1881–1965), a coal miner. He attended Buckhaven High School where he won the Dux Arts Medal (1932). From 1932 to 1936 he studied at Edinburgh College of Art where fellow students included Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Margaret Mellis.
He first exhibited in 1934 with the Royal Scottish Academy and Society of Scottish Artists, and his postgraduate scholarship (1936–37) included history of art studies with Professor David Talbot Rice at the University of Edinburgh.
Awarded a travelling scholarship (1937–38), Gear visited France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Turkey. This trip included a stay in Paris studying with Fernand Léger. At summer school in Arbroath (1938) he met Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. A brief interest in Surrealism led him to exhibit with the New Era Group in Edinburgh in 1939.
Called up for military service in 1940, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1941, during World War II Gear served with the Royal Corps of Signals. He met Merlyn Evans in Durban, en route to his first posting in the Middle East. Gear subsequently served in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Cyprus, before participating in the Allied invasion of Italy, where in Siena and Florence he held his first solo exhibitions in 1944. After VE Day he worked for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied Control Commission, with responsibility for securing art works in Lower Saxony in the British Zone of occupied postwar Germany. During his travels through Europe he also worked to promote local artists suffering from wartime deprivations, including Karl Otto Götz.
Between 1947 and 1950 Gear lived and worked in Paris, where he met Eduardo Paolozzi, Alan Davie, Stephen Gilbert and many of the leading post-war generation of Parisian artists including Atlan, Da Silva, De Staël, Dubuffet, Hartung, Mathieu, Pignon, Poliakoff, Schoffer, Singier, Soulages and Zadkine. In 1948 he held his first Paris and London solo exhibitions, and visited Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon and Bryan Winter in St Ives. After meeting Appel, Constant, Corneille, and Jorn, he joined and exhibited with the North European avant-garde CoBrA art group in Amsterdam during 1949. That year he also co-exhibited with Jackson Pollock in New York, married an American citizen, Charlotte Chertok (1920–88), and his son David was born. While holidaying in Brittany in 1950, he was visited by William Scott.
In 1950 William Gear moved with his family to England (Loosley Row, Buckinghamshire), and in response to an Arts Council invitation to produce a work for its "Sixty Paintings for '51" exhibition, he painted "Autumn Landscape", now in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle. When the work was awarded a Festival of Britain purchase prize in 1951, the result was a public furore. Following a further move to the nearby Speen Farm (Flowers Bottom, Buckinghamshire), his son Robert was born the same year.
In 1952, Gear produced the notable works, 'Early Spring' and 'March Landscape', both paintings similar in style, with abstract organic shapes in vibrant blues and greens. 'Early Spring' remained in the collection of Gear and remained with his Estate after he died.