Frederick John Pym Gore CBE RA (1913-2009)

1913 - 2009

Frederick Gore was born on 8 November 1913. His Father, Spencer Frederick Gore, a painter and President of the Campden Town Group, died unexpectedly some months later in 1914. His Mother, Mary Joanna (Molly) Kerr was a dancer from Edinburgh.

He studied Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford, but could be found more frequently at the Ruskin School of Art, studying painting and drawing. He trained at the the Slade under Henry Tonks and the Westminster School of Art with Mark Gertler and Polunin from whom he learnt the painting of back drops for the theatre which proved useful when he joined the Balalaika Dance Group.

Prior to World War Two, courtesy of a Greek patron, he travelled to and painted in Greece for a year. Subsequently his career became more established and Gore was to make his first visit to France at that time, labelled as “the English Fauve” by the famous art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, who had created the term in 1905 after visiting the Salon d’Automne exhibition and encountered the bold canvases of Andre Derain and Henri Matisse who had spent the Summer painting together in Collioure in the south of France. Other artists exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne that year, were Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees van Dongen, amongst others, who were also associated with the Fauves movement. Les Fauves (french for wild beasts) was a style of wild brush strokes and strident colours with subject matter simplified and abstract. Gore frequently painted in the area of Les Baux ... show more

Frederick Gore was born on 8 November 1913. His Father, Spencer Frederick Gore, a painter and President of the Campden Town Group, died unexpectedly some months later in 1914. His Mother, Mary Joanna (Molly) Kerr was a dancer from Edinburgh.

He studied Philosophy at Trinity College, Oxford, but could be found more frequently at the Ruskin School of Art, studying painting and drawing. He trained at the the Slade under Henry Tonks and the Westminster School of Art with Mark Gertler and Polunin from whom he learnt the painting of back drops for the theatre which proved useful when he joined the Balalaika Dance Group.

Prior to World War Two, courtesy of a Greek patron, he travelled to and painted in Greece for a year. Subsequently his career became more established and Gore was to make his first visit to France at that time, labelled as “the English Fauve” by the famous art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, who had created the term in 1905 after visiting the Salon d’Automne exhibition and encountered the bold canvases of Andre Derain and Henri Matisse who had spent the Summer painting together in Collioure in the south of France. Other artists exhibiting at the Salon d’Automne that year, were Maurice de Vlaminck and Kees van Dongen, amongst others, who were also associated with the Fauves movement. Les Fauves (french for wild beasts) was a style of wild brush strokes and strident colours with subject matter simplified and abstract. Gore frequently painted in the area of Les Baux

and Mausanne in Provence.

Post-war, Gore taught from 1946 at St Martins School of Art. He was Head of Painting from 1951 – 1979 and was appointed Vice President in 1961 until he retired from the post in 1979. He was a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum 1967-1984 and Chairman of its Artistic Records Committee 1972-1986. In 1972 Gore was elected as a Royal Academician and from 1976-1987 he was Chairman of the Royal Academy Exhibitions Committee.

In the 1950’s he spent most of his summers painting en plein air on the Greek islands of Paros and Aegina. In the 1960’s he went to Majorca and Provence. In 1980 Gore went to the US and was so taken with it that he returned on an annual basis thereafter. He exhibited at the Juster Gallery in New York, the Redfern Gallery, London and the Richmond Hill Gallery where his last solo exhibition was held in 2009. He died in the same year at the age of 95.