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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)

Design on a prism in black, grey, blue and red

SKU: 6496
Pen and ink and watercolour
2 3/8 x 4 3/8 in. (7 x 12 cm)
Presentation:
framed

Size:
Height – 7cm x Width – 12cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
The Artist’s Family

When the Tate purchased Monnington’s Square Design (1967) he spoke of his abstract paintings as ‚Äúdirect descendants from my ceiling painting in the Council House, Bristol, which was my first departure from purely representational painting. Since them I have been increasingly interested in the subdivisions of surface areas contained in equilateral rectangles (squares) and rectangles derived from square roots. These two-dimensional mathematical relationships suggest to me dimensions in depth, and provide a discipline which at the present time I find as necessary and interesting as that imposed previously in representational painting… You can cut out the blurb if you wish, but I was trying for my own edification to put into words what I think I have been trying to do in the last ten years‚Äù, (letter of 12th June 1968)

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THE ARTIST

Sir Thomas Monnington
Sir Thomas
Monnington
1902 - 1976

Painter, especially of murals. Born in London, he studied at the Slade School in 1918-23 and was Rome Scholar in 1923-26. He married fellow Rome Scholar Winifred Knights in 1924. Among his public works are a decoration for St Stephen’s Hall, Westminster, 1928, and the new Council House in Bristol, 1956. Monnington taught drawing at the Royal Academy Schools, 1931-39, and in 1949 joined the staff of the Slade, whose strong linear tradition marked his own work. Monnington is represented in a number of public galleries, including the Tate, British Museum and Imperial War Museum. He was elected RA in 1938, became its President in 1966 and was knighted in 1967. There was a memorial exhibition at the RA in 1977. Another traveled from the British School at Rome to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter and the Fine Art Society in 1997. From the 1940s Monnington lived in Groombridge, Kent; the local landscape inspired much of his post-war work. Monnington was one of the outstanding draughtsmen of his generation. He had a considerable influence as a teacher (Euan Uglow was among his pupils), and was one of the most effective of the twentieth-century presidents of the RA, turning around the Academy’s ailing fortunes. Remarkably he was the first president of the Academy to produce abstract paintings and indeed made no distinction between abstract and figurative art: “Surely what matters is not whether a work is abstract or representative, but whether it has merit. If those who visit exhibitions would come without preconceptions, would apply to art the elementary standards they apply in other spheres, they might glimpse new horizons. They might ask themselves: is this work distinguished or is it commonplace? Fresh and original or uninspired, derivative and dull? Is it modest or pretentious?” (Interview in the Christian Science Monitor, 29.5.67).

Selected Literature: Judy Egerton, Sir Thomas Monnington, Royal Academy of Arts, 1977 Paul Liss, Sir Thomas Monnington, British School at Rome/Fine Art Society plc, 1997

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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)

Study for Bristol Ceiling, circa 1952

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Sheet of studies, early 1920’s

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Overflying aeroplanes, study for Clouds and Spitfires, circa 1943

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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)

Compositional and cloud study for Southern England, 1944. Spitfires Attacking Flying-Bombs

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Study with colour notes for Clouds and Spitfires, circa 1943

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Study for Clouds and Spitfires,(7.11.44)

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Bomb damage to a stone masonary column, Antwerp, circa 1944

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Study of Olive leaves, for Allegory , 1924

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Study of Olive leaves, for Allegory , 1924

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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)

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View from the cockpit, circa 1944

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Study for Fighter Affiliation: Halifax and Hurricane Aircraft Co-Operating in Action, c. 1943

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Sir Thomas Monnington (1902 - 1976)

Baptism, circa 1924

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Study for Winter, circa 1922

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