19-08-2010 - 11-09-2010
Cyril Gerber Fine Art is proud to present the first Scottish showing of one of the most notable English painters of his generation, Anthony Fry. The major sources of inspiration for Fry's work; the dreamlike landscapes of the Equatorial zones, the nude in all its permeations, and the shuttered spaces of meditative interiors, paintings and drawings from his travels in India, Morocco, Greece, Turkey and Spain, all show Fry's dexterity of form and mastery of colour: incandescent, powerful and full of life.
The works are infused with vibrant colour, his enigmatic drawings reflect the tenderness of relationships and contemplative observation of characters who appear in his paintings. The sensuality of creating the surface on his canvases is of great importance. Fry describes his method of painting as involving layering and scraping back, often using the edge of his hand to sweep vibrant colour across the canvas and sometimes inspired by the texture of a tiny fragment of bark, is stimulated to emulate this crusty surface with vivid pigment. The importance of drawing is always present, and Fry uses the smallest of sable brushes to add fine detail.
Over the many years, Fry has spent the winters in his studio in the old Portuguese port of Cochin, Kerala. Fry says that he needs heat to paint, and his work has been inspired by these annual trips. The dreamlike landscapes and figures are marked by incandescent hues and richly textured surfaces, capturing the sense of space and light of the exotic subcontinents. John Russell said of Fry that almost alone among the English painters of his generation, he reasserts the prestige of the dreamer.
Born 1927, Anthony Fry attended Edinburgh College of Art, tutored by William Gillies and then Camberwell School of Art with Victor Pasmore. He has held tutorial positions in the Painting schools of Chelsea, Camberwell, Bath, Slade, Ruskin College and Cornell university, USA. Awarded the Rome Scholarship, winner of the John Moore's Prize (Liverpool), and a recipient of a Harkess Fellowship, and the Lorne Fellowship (USA). His work is held in several public collections including The Arts Council, UK; The Tate Gallery, London; The Saatchi Collection; The Government Art Collection; The Stuyvesant Collection; The National Gallery of Victoria, Australia and many others. He has had numerous solo exhibitions, and this is his first exhibition in Scotland.