Terry Frost
1915 Born 13 October, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
1930 After attending local schools, begins work, first in a cycle shop, then at a radio factory, bakery, aircraft factory and electrical component wholesaler in Birmingham
1939-41 Called up as a member of the Army Reserve and serves in Palestine and France
1941-45 Transfers to the Commandos, serves in the Middle East and is taken prisoner in Crete. POW until April 1945, during which time he meets Adrian Heath who gives him drawing lessons and encourages him to paint. His first solo exhibition is held in his home town, but in his absence
1945 After his release, marries Kathleen Clarke in August and returns to wholesaling work in Birmingham, while attending art classes in the evening
1946 Following an illness, resigns his job and moves to Cornwall at Heath’s suggestion, to study at Leonard Fuller’s St Ives School of Painting. Becomes friends with Peter Lanyon, Sven Berlin and also Leonard Richmond, who teaches him to paint landscapes in oil ‘that might sell’
1947 Meets Ben Nicholson, with whom he corresponds. In the autumn starts his studies at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, taught by Coldstream, Pasmore and Kenneth Martin, inter alios.
1948 Introduces Pasmore to Ben Nicholson. Returns each summer to St Ives to work at the Sunset Bar, and to paint and exhibit with the St Ives Society of Artists. Begins to experiment with abstraction
1949 Awarded NDD and continues to study pottery and lithography unofficially at Camberwell
1950 Returns to live in St Ives, taking a studio next to Ben Nicholson and working part-time for, and occasionally exhibiting with, Lanyon at Robin Nances’s, the furniture-maker
1951 Starts to work as an assistant to Barbara Hepworth (together with John Wells and Denis Mitchell) while studying for his ‘Intermediate’ at Penzance School of Art. Meets Roger Hilton. Elected a member of the Penwith Society. E.C. (Peter) Gregory buys his important oil painting ‘Walk along the quay’ (now Coll. Adrian Heath, on loan to Sheffield City Art Galleries). Meets Sam Francis for the first time, then exhibits at the ICA in London
1952 Begins to teach life drawing at Bath Academy of Art at Corsham, while also teaching anatomy and still-life drawing part-time at Willesden School of Art, London. Stays with Adrian Heath in London during term-time
1953 E.C. Gregory purchases the artist’s ‘Blue movement’ (1952) for the CAS (illustrated in its Annual Report for 1952-53), and the British Council makes its first purchase (a watercolour) from the artist
1954 E.C. Gregory offers Frost the two-year Fellowship in Painting which he was funding at Leeds University. Returns to St Ives for the summers while at Leeds
1955 Teaches part-time on Harry Thubron’s Basic Design Course at Leeds School of Art. First visit to Paris, accompanied by Roger Hilton, who also takes him to visit Sam Francis and Soulages in their studios, and to Noguchi’s sculpture garden for UNESCO
1956 Returns to live and paint full-time in St Ives. Shortly thereafter becomes acquainted with the American critic Clement Greenberg, and later with the dealer Martha Jackson and with Mark Rothko, who all visit St Ives towards the end of the decade
1959 The Tate Gallery purchases its first painting by the artist, from E.C. Gregory’s collection. (It has since purchased more paintings, notably in the 1970s)
1960 First visit to the USA including three weeks in New York and visits several artists’ studios
1963 Moves to Banbury and begins part-time teaching at Coventry School of Art
1964 Visiting Lecturer in Fine Art at Reading University. Summer teaching at San José,California, in the autumn takes up a Fellowship in Painting at Newcastle University
1965 Appointed Lecturer in Fine Art at Reading University. Awarded a Non-purchase Prize at the 5th John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool
1967 Teaches at Voss Summer School, Norway
1969 Awarded a Prize at the Arts Council of NI Open Painting exhibition, Belfast
1970 Promoted to Reader in Fine Art at Reading University
1973 Member of the Selection Jury for the First British International Drawing Biennale, organised by Teesside BC at Middleborough
1974 Moves to live and work in Newlyn, Cornwall
1975 Summer teaching at Banff, Canada
1976 Summer teaching at the University of Western Ontario, Canada
1977 Appointed Professor of Painting at Reading University. Teaches at the Summer School, Nicosia, Cyprus
1980 Teaches at the Summer Academy, Umea, Sweden
1981 Retires from Reading University, and made Professor Emeritus. Visits Russia for the first time to see the early work of Kandinsky and Matisse
1992 Elected a Royal Academician
1998 Knighted
2003 Dies September 1
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1944 Leamington Spa Library
1952 Leicester Galleries (also 1956, 1958)
1960 Bertha Schaeffer Gallery, New York
1961 Waddington Galleries (also 1963, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1978)
1964 Galerie Charles Lienhard, Zurich
Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
1969 Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1970 Plymouth City Art Gallery (also 1986)
1971 Institute of Contemporary Arts
1976 Arts Council and South West Arts Retrospective Tour
Serpentine Gallery
1980 New Art Centre
1982 Gloria Gallery, Nicosia
1986 University of Reading and Newlyn Art Gallery, and tour to Plymouth.
1989 Mayor Gallery
Belgrave Gallery
1993 Austin Desmond Fine Art
Tate Gallery St Ives
1994 Adelson Gallery New York
1995 McGeary Gallery, Brussels
Newlyn Art Gallery
1997 Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
1998 British Council, New York
1999 Arts Council Spotlight, touring exhibition
2000 Terry Frost: Six Decades, Royal Academy
Beaux Arts, London
2001 Mead Gallery, Warwick University
Galleria Multigraphic, Venice
Maison des Arts, Colle sur Loup, France
2002 Belgrave Gallery, London
Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh
Badcocks Gallery, Newlyn
Russell Cotes Museum, Bournemouth
2003 Beaux Arts, London
2003 Painting not Painting, Tate St Ives
2007 Beaux Arts, London
2008 The Paintings of Sir Terry Frost, Reading Museum
2008 Crossing Over, Beaux Arts, Bath
2009 Five Decades of Terry Frost (Prints), Stoneman Graphics Gallery, Penzance
2009 Works on Paper from the Artist’s Studio, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
2010 Terry Frost: A Lover of Life, Beaux Arts, London
2012 Between Sun and Moon, forward by Mel Gooding, Beaux Arts, London
2015 Terry Frost: Leeds City Art Gallery, organised by the Tate St Ives
Sir Terry Frost R.A. A Leamington Lad, Leamington Art Gallery and Museum
Frost Family and Friends, Banbury Museum
Terry Frost: ‘A Radiant Moment’ A Centenary Exhibition, Beaux Arts, London
Terry Frost: Centenary Exhibition, Belgrave Gallery, St Ives
2015 – 16 Terry Frost: Newlyn Art Gallery and The Exchange Gallery, Penzance, organised by the Tate St Ives
1951 Danish, British and American Abstract Art, Riverside Museum, New York
Abstract Art, Gimpel Fils
1952 CAS Exhibition, The Tate Gallery
British Abstract Art, Galerie de France, Paris
1953 Space in Colour, Hanover Gallery
1954 Abstract, Cubist, Formalist, Surrealist, Redfern Gallery
1955 50 Years of British Art, British Council Tour
1956 Recent Abstract Painting, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Critics’ Choice (Herbert Read), Arthur Tooth & Sons
1957 Statements, ICA
British Art, Galerie Creuze, Paris
Lissone International Painting Prize
Tokyo International
New Trends in British Art, Rome, New York
John Moores Liverpool 1, Walker Art Gallery
1958 Pittsburgh Bicentennial, Carnegie Institute (also 1959, 1961)
Guggenheim International, New York (also 1959)
Gregory Fellowship Exhibition, Bradford City Art Gallery
1959 Recent paintings by 7 British Artists, British Council tour to Australia
John Moores Liverpool 2, Walker Art Gallery
The Developing Process, ICA
1960 British Painting 1720-1960, British Council tour to Russia
1961 The 21st International Watercolour Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, New York
John Moores Liverpool 3, Walker Art Gallery
1962 Kompass II,Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven
British Art of the 20th Century, Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and tour
British Art Today, San Francisco Museum of Art and tour
1963 British Painting in the Sixties, CAS, Tate and Whitechapel Galleries
John Moores Liverpool 4, Walker Art Gallery
1964 Contemporary British Painting and Sculpture, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
1954-1964: Painting and Sculpture of a Decade, Gulbenkian Foundation Collection,Tate Gallery
New Painting, 1961-64, Arts Council Tour
1965 John Moores Liverpool 5, Walker Art Gallery
Frost, Heron, Hilton, Wynter, Waddington Galleries
Peter Stuyvesant Foundation collection purchases, Whitechapel Gallery
1966 Blow, Frink and Frost, Prestons Art Gallery, Bolton
3rd Open Painting Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast
1967 Recent British Painting, Stuyvesant Collection exhibition, Tate Gallery
1968 British Art Today, Hamburg Kunstverein
1969 John Moores Liverpool 7, Walker Art Gallery
1970 British Painting, 1960-1970, National Gallery of Art, Washington
1974 British Painting 1974, Arts Council, Hayward Gallery
1977 British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy of Art
Pier Art Gallery exhibition, Tate Gallery
Cyprus Summer School staff exhibition, Gallery Zygos, Nicosia
1980 Hayward Annual, Arts Council, Hayward Gallery
Pictures for an Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery
1984 Landscape in Britain, Arts Council, Hayward Gallery
English Contrasts, Art Curial, Paris
Frost, Paraskos, Charalambides, Gloria Gallery, Nicosia
1985 St Ives 1939-1964, Tate Gallery
1986 Looking West, Newlyn Art Gallery and the Royal College of Art
1989 The Presence of Painting, South Bank Centre
1993 RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London
1994 Here and Now, Serpentine Gallery
1995 British Abstract Painting, Flowers East
McGreary Gallery, Brussels
Newlyn Art Gallery
2000 Summer 2000, Beaux Arts, London
2002 Square Root, Sarah Myerscough Fine Art, London
In Print, Contemporary British Art from the Paragon Press, touring worldwide
Summer 2002, Beaux Arts, London
2003 Painting Not Painting, Tate St Ives
2004 RA Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London
2006 Irving, Hoyland, Frost, Château de Sours, France
2007 Spotlight on St Ives, touring Denbigh, Lancaster, Cheltenham, Newcastle and Scarborough
2009 A Select Exhibition from the Arts Council Collection, York Art Gallery, then touring
2011 Summer Exhibition, Beaux Arts, London