Sir Terry Frost

Manchester Education Authority
Abbott and Holder, London, by 1993
Private Collection, U.K.
Sale, Sotheby's London, 13th July 2007, lot 127, where acquired by the present owner

David Lewis et. al., Terry Frost, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1994, p.188, illustrated p.120.

Not viewed out of the frame. The sheet does not appear to be laid down but appears to be adhered to a backing card in several places. The sheet appears sound. The edges of the sheet are deckled. There are several pinholes around the edges of the sheet, thought to be inkeeping with the artist's working method, and there is a very faint tear and possible area of infilling corresponding to the pin hole near the upper left corner. Otherwise the work appears in excellent original condition, with strong, vivid colours throughout. The sheet is float mounted and held under glass in a dark stained moulded frame with a gilt border and a cream mount. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work combines two major preoccupations of Frost's career - the idea of the black sun and the inspiration of poetry. In 1974 he was commissioned to produce a number of works based on favourite poems and from T.S. Eliot he chose one of the most famous passages from the Four Quartets, the fourth section of Burnt Nornton and this is inscribed in Terry Frost's hand on a sheet attached to the reverse:

Time and the bell have buried the day,
The black cloud carries the sun away.
Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray
Clutch and Cling

Chill
Fingers of Yew be curled
Down on us? After the kingfisher's wing
Has answered light to light, and is silent,
the light is still
At the still point of the turning world.

In the course of an interview with David Lewis in 1979, Frost made this comment on his Burnt Norton 'Now there are those big black circles I have always been a sun lover and a moon lover....it's to do with the things that are always there in spite of our world's problems. If you look at the sun for a moment you see black spots...and in the heat the sun becomes black, so in my paintings a big black circle is to do with the sun. In Burnt Norton T.S. Eliot wrote "Time and the bell have buried the day/ The black cloud carries the sun away". And yet the sun breaks out from the edges of the cloud, something which everyone sees but doesn't notice, and I have tried to turn it into a compelling image'. Although Frost's Burnt Norton sets out to be an equivalent to Eliot's words, rather than an illustration of them, certain images in the poetry have parallels in the painting so one might see the trajectory of the kingfisher's wing in the apparently rapidly painted strokes of red and blue two-thirds of the way down the picture, and the tendrils of the clematis in the sweeping lines which stray down from spirals in the centre of the black sun. One of these obliterates a small section of yellow from a second smaller sun, which seems to be being carried away by an enveloping black cloud.