The two men had met in 1954 when working together on the Peterlee New Town in County Durham.
Ryder had helped Pasmore with some of the more technical points of architecture with this painted wooden construction titled Composition in White, Black and Indian Red and executed July-August 1954, created as a ‘thank you’ for his support. It is pictured on the dining room wall of ‘Trees’, the Ryders’ home near Newcastle, in the book Modern Houses in Town and County, published by House & Garden in 1974.
Only a handful of Abstract works by Pasmore from the first half of the 1950s have appeared at auction. This piece had last sold at Anderson & Garland (22% buyer’s premium) in Newcastle upon Tyne in September 2009 when it was purchased by the vendor’s late father.
It returned to the auction house on July 29 where, guided at £10,000-15,000, it took £48,000.
