Henry Cliffe

The Artist's Estate

London, Redfern Gallery, Metavisual Tachiste Abstract Painting in England Today, 1957, A Fiftieth Anniversary, 26 June - 26 July 2007, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue.

The picture is relined There are areas of craquelure across the paint surface. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals areas of fluorescence across the surface which correspond with areas where the artist appears to have added a different shade of white paint. These do not appear to be areas of retouching by another hand. The work is unframed.
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Shortly before being demobbed from the Army in 1946, Cliffe met William Scott and a friendship developed that lasted until Cliffe's death in 1983, and through Scott he enrolled at Bath Academy of Art. Under the direction of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, Corsham Court (where the Academy moved in 1946) became one of the prime centres of artistic tuition in England, in no small part due to the quality of the teaching staff, which during the 1950's included Frost, Armitage, Wynter, Heath, Lanyon and Scott. Cliffe joined the staff at Corsham and ran the Lithography Department from 1950 until 1981. As both painter and printmaker, Cliffe exhibited widely during the 1950s and 1960s, including the 1954 Venice Biennale (he shared the British Pavilion with Nicholson, Bacon and Freud) and again in 1960, and numerous international shows.