Victor Pasmore

London, Tate Gallery, Victor Pasmore, May – June 1965, no.216 (exhibited in an earlier state);
Calais, Musee de Calais, Victor Pasmore 1950-1967, June – October 1985, no.29, illustrated in the catalogue (in black and white), p.20.

Alan Bowness and Luigi Lambertini (intro.), Victor Pasmore with a catalogue raisonné of the paintings, constructions and graphics 1926 - 1979, Thames and Hudson, London 1980, no.545, illustrated. 

The artist has drilled holes through the board which is in good original condition. There are a few inconsistencies along the edges which appear to be inherent to the work The paint surface is in good overall condition. There is no sign of retouching under ultra-violet light. Held under glass in a wooden box frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Begun whilst Pasmore was in Newcastle in 1960, the present painting was exhibited in his Tate retrospective in 1965 with a note that indicated that it was still the subject of ongoing work. Included in its final form in Bowness and Lambertini with the above title, not only does it demonstrate Pasmore's frequent practice of continually evolving his works, but also a number of themes that are central in his oeuvre.

When Pasmore began to move towards a level of abstraction in his Hammersmith paintings in 1947-48, the sense of curvilinear forms underpinning the overall subject is paramount, seen perhaps at its most extreme in The Gardens of Hammersmith (3) (B&L 133). With Pasmore's growing interest in abstraction, such curved and spiralling forms become more noticeable, such as in the important The Snowstorm: Spiral Motif in Black & White (Arts Council) of 1950-51. Although the next stage of his abstraction follows a path much concerned with geometric construction, Pasmore's interest in these forms is persistent, and we see them reappear time and again, most notably in the 1957-60 period in which the present work has its genesis. The use of a large oval base form is very typical of the paintings of this period, however here we see Pasmore introducing the scoring and cutting into the surface that was to become a major feature of his later work. The drilling into the surface would appear to belong to the later stages of the painting's evolution, but in doing so, not only does the artist make the piece increasingly sculptural, inviting the viewer to investigate the method of making, he also uses these groups of holes in exactly the same way as he had used the areas of 'pointillist' paint in the paintings of the 1940s.