Specialist Stephen Sparrow has put together this Modern Art & Photography Directory to provide you with information on the artists whose items we regularly sell in our Modern Art & Design sales. Click an entry to find out more information and to see pieces we have recently sold and prices achieved.
Regarded as one of the most important photojournalists of the twentieth century, Arnold documented people from a geographically and socially diverse range - from celebrities to ordinary people at work, world leaders to the people living under them. These subjects are all brought together under the naturalistic way in which Arnold took their photos, refusing to use studios and large equipment so as not to intimidate her subjects, but rather favouring spontaneity and natural light in order to capture a sense of reality.
Sandra Blow is best known for her large-scale abstract collages, where she used paint and other ‘non-art’ materials like cement, tea and ash to create artworks that are both visually and texturally interesting. She was regarded as one of the pioneers of the British Abstract Movement of the 1950s.
Mary Fedden’s work is categorised by its use of colour and the delicate precision of the draughtsmanship, a style she developed later in life. The most sought-after of her work are those later pieces that demonstrate her mastery of texture and eye for detail, such as her stylised still life pictures, a perennial favourite with collectors.
Elisabeth Frink, born in Suffolk in 1930, is best known as a sculptor and printmaker. She studied at the Guildford and Chelsea schools of art in the 1940s and early 1950s, and mainly used men, and birds and animals as her subjects.
Frost is best known for his depictions of landscapes in an abstract style. He described his painting technique as the putting of colour references to things that he would see whilst out in the world, building up these references on the canvas to ‘rediscover’ his seen and lived experience.
William Gear developed his distinctive style early in his career, and his work is instantly recognisable for its sense of movement, almost architectural structure and use of heavy black lines to divide blocks of primary colour. Successful during his lifetime, his work is now considered essential study for students of 20th century British art and it remains popular with collectors.
Frederick Gore is best known as a landscape painter, but he was also influenced by post-impressionist and abstract styles. His richly-coloured Mediterranean scenes in a post-impressionist style are amongst the most typical and sought after of his work.
Hepworth explored her interest in natural forms in a wide array of media throughout her career, and whilst she is most known for her stone and bronze sculptures, her work in printmaking and collage are equally admired. Her work has led to art history considering her one of the most influential sculptors of the twentieth century, and she is credited as creating some of the earliest forms of abstract sculpture in Britain.
Born in 1937, Hockey is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century, having made a career for himself as a painter, printmaker, photographer, stage designer and draughtsman. His work across such a wide range of media can be seen to be linked through their autobiographical subject matter; Hockney’s oeuvre is typically made up of self-portraits, or portraits of people, homes, and landscapes that have been known to him.
Hodgkin is one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary painters and printmakers. Despite his own opinion that painting and printmaking are two distinct art forms, his prints are often credited with being fusions of them both.
Shelley was born in Margate, Kent, in 1938, and made a name for himself in the art world through his surrealist depictions of the British countryside. The artist was keen to establish that the landscapes within his paintings may be inspired by the countryside, but are ultimately imaginary, giving his works a dreamlike and fantastical quality.
