Bringing together 15 paintings, drawings, reliefs and prints from the Arts Council Collection, this spotlight on Victor Pasmore features the work of one of the pre-eminent British artists of the post-war period. Charting Pasmore’s career as it evolved from early figurative paintings to full abstraction, this National Touring Exhibition from the Hayward Gallery reveals a sensitivity to form, balance and shape that runs throughout his work. The exhibition includes one of the Arts Council Collection’s key paintings – The Snowstorm: Spiral Motif in Black and White (1950-51) – the swirling forms in which refer back to some of the most powerful paintings of nature, from Leonardo to Turner.
Over the course of a long profession, Pasmore’s art changed direction several times, moving from atmospheric views of the Thames in the 1940s to abstract works in the 1950s and 60s. Early on he was associated with the Euston Road School and its search for an objective recording of visual reality. After a dramatic conversion to abstraction in 1948, he produced some of the most radically uncompromising paintings and reliefs of the period – a move which renowned critic Herbert Read described as ‘the most revolutionary event in post-war British art’.