Artworks - Terry Frost

Born in 1915, in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, Frost was a serving soldier in the army in WWII fighting in France and Palestine, In 1941 he was taken Prisoner of War in Salonika, Crete and not released until the end of the war. It was during his time in captivity that he began to paint, with the encouragement of fellow prisoner and artist, Adrian Heath. Returning to England, he received an ex-serviceman's grant and attended Camberwell School of Art, London from 1947 to 1950. He initially attended the St Ives School of Art and returned 1951 and worked as an assistant to sculptor Barbara Hepworth. He went on to teach at the Bath Academy of Art at Corsham Court from 1952, and was the Gregory Fellow at Leeds University 1954 to 1956, teaching at Leeds School of Art from 1956 to 1957. He was made Artist in Residence at the Fine Art Department of Newcastle University in 1964, became a full time lecturer at the Department of Fine Art, Reading University 1965, and went on to become Professor of Painting at the University of Reading from 1977 to 1981. Frost's first one-man show was held at the Leicester Galleries in 1952. He continued to exhibit regularly in London and his first international one-man show was held in 1961 at the Bertha Schaeffer Gallery, New York. Further solo exhibitions include the ICA, London (1971) and the Serpentine Gallery, London (1976) organised by the Arts Council and South West Arts, touring to Newcastle, Bristol, Leeds, Chester, Birmingham and Plymouth. In 2000 a major retrospective, 'Terry Frost: Six Decades', was held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. Frost has also participated in many group shows since 1953, and his work is held in many corporate and private collections throughout the world. Terry Frost was elected Royal Academician 1992 and received a knighthood in 1998. He lived and worked in Newlyn, Cornwall until his death in 2003. Terry Frost printmaker The practice of printmaking was an integral part of Terry Frost’s creative output from his student days until his recent death. Sir Terry was famous for his passionate use of repeated motifs and vivid colour in his work. Frost experimented within every printmaking discipline and was the most consistent, innovative and prolific practitioner amongst his contemporaries. Frost’s output in the graphic arts ranged from monoprints and linocuts of the 1940s and early 1950s, to drypoints, lithographs and early screenprints of the mid to late 1950s. He started to work with collaged prints in the 1960s and continued to produce lithographs and screenprints independently and in collaboration with galleries and publishers whenever he had the opportunity. A series of self-portrait etchings in the 1980s was followed by a portfolio of etchings based on the poetry of Lorca, a subject very close to his heart (published 1988). The following year ‘Trewellard Suns’, a portfolio of linocuts with hand colouring was published.