Lancelot Ribeiro

Acquired directly from the artist's estate

London, Swiss Cottage Library, Lancelot Ribeiro, Paintings: A Retrospective 1960-1986, 1986

D. Buckman, Lancelot Ribeiro: An Artist in India and Europe, Francis Boutle Publishers, London, 2014, illustrated p. 70

There are spots of varnish across the surface that have yellowed due to age. There is minor staining visible in lighter areas of paint and craquelure present through the thicker applications. There are spots of re-touching visible under blacklight, most notably along the upper edge.
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Lancelot Ribeiro was one of the first Indian painters who settled in Britain after the Second World War. Born in Bombay, he spent his childhood in India under the British Empire. He first arrived in Britain in 1950 to study accountancy at the urging of his brother, the well-known artist Francis Newton Souza, but soon abandoned this for life drawing at St Martins School of Art. This rare work is among his strongly coloured townscapes with bold outlines in an expressionistic style painted in the oil medium. Post 1960s, Ribeiro abandoned the oil medium to experiment with polyvinyl acetate and oil mixes – the forerunner of acrylic paints. Over the next 50 years, a restless imagination prompted works which included flying and tangled townscapes under explosive skies, brilliantly-coloured surreal scenes, playful wood sculptures and ceramics.
Recent years have seen a surge in interest in the work of the artist following exhibitions at London’s Asia House, exhibitions in India, as well as a biography by David Buckman; Lancelot Ribeiro: An Artist in India and Europe, published in 2014. The artistic and cultural heritage of the prolific painter will be celebrated in a year-long project entitled Retracing Ribeiro to be held in London in 2017. It will be launched with an exhibition at the Burgh House Museum, Hampstead and presented at public events where newly-acquired artworks will be unveiled, including at the British Museum, ‘Remembering Lancelot Ribeiro and other Indian artists in 1960s Britain’, in November 2016, and a Victoria & Albert Museum evening, ‘Ribeiro: A Celebration of Life, Love and Passion’.