Modern British Art

Has Bowie made a difference? This question has been doing the rounds in Modern British circles since 2016 when Sotheby’s offered the highly publicised collection of David Bowie.

Few events shaped British art more in the 20th century than war. As commemorations reached a pinnacle during the centenary month of the First World War, the November Mod Brit series presented an opportune moment to sell art directly related to the conflict.

Anna Wakerley of Oriel Fine Art specialises in pre- and post-war Modern British painting.

An exhibition at Messum’s this month celebrates the ‘glorious and most extraordinary partnership’ of the artists Lionel Bulmer (1919-92) and Margaret Green (1925-2003).

Prints by Modern British artists are often touted as an affordable way-in for collectors on a budget, but it seems this is not always the case for northern powerhouse LS Lowry (1887-1976).

It has been a bullish year for Welsh art and antiques, according to auction house Rogers Jones (24% buyer’s premium), which broke the £1m barrier for the first time this year across three dedicated sales.

Work by the community of mid-20th century painters in Essex known as the Great Bardfield Artists fetches strong sums on the secondary market.

A London scene by an important Modern British painter will be offered at Deutscher and Hackett in Sydney on November 28.

The current demand for female artists was in evidence at Henry Adams (20% buyer’s premium) of Chichester when a work by Evelyn Ince (1886-1941) went under the hammer.

Renowned today for his fusion of Post- Impressionism and eastern European folk-art, the Jewish painter Mark Gertler (1891-1939) was inspired at the outset of his career by the northern and early-Italian Renaissance masters.

A painting by Herbert Arnould Olivier (1861-1952), a British artist and the uncle of the actor Lawrence Olivier, is among the stand-out works on show in Jeremy Green’s third gallery exhibition this year.

Two exhibitions in Mayfair this month offer a reappraisal of a clutch of artists who lived and worked in St Ives.

The relaunched British Art Fair opened with a flurry of sales at its new London venue, the Saatchi Gallery.

Wintry scenes by two local artists created a brighter picture at a recent auction in Yorkshire.

Described by one of his biographers as ‘The Last of the Norwich School’, Leonard Squirrell (1893-1979) was an East Anglian man through and through.

A view of a Tyneside street by Spennymoor mining artist Norman Cornish (1919-2014) took £5500 at local auction house Anderson & Garland (20% buyer’s premium).

The British Art Fair is an annual feeding ground for collectors of modern and post-war British art. This year’s staging of the 30-year-old event, which runs from September 20-23, marks a new chapter for the fair as it moves to London’s Saatchi Gallery.