Evelyn Gibbs
(1905 - 1991) |
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Art Work
| Name: |
Evelyn Gibbs |
| Gender: |
Female |
| Place of Birth: |
England |
| Nationality: |
British |
| Birth: |
1905 |
| Death: |
1991 |
| Website: |
http://www.evelyngibbs.com/ |
| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
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| Medium: |
oil painting, pencil |
| Method: |
oil painting, drawing |
| Style: |
Classicism |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
Printmaking
Teaching |
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Biography
At her joint exhibition with Sylvia Melland at Zwemmer's Gallery, London in 1957, Evelyn Gibbs showed oil paintings and drawings of Italy. The catalogue described her career, beginning as a 'brilliant student' at the Royal College of Art who was awarded a Rome Scholarship in Engraving from 1929-31. To earn her living, Gibbs became a schoolteacher. Although this was easier work for women to find than art college teaching, which remained almost exclusively male, women still faced discrimination. Between the wars women had to leave teaching if they married, and were paid less than men doing the same job. Despite this, Gibbs made a success of her career. She published a book advocating the reform of her profession, The Teaching of Art in Schools (London 1934), in which she suggested using imaginative materials and working in response to exhibition visits, rather than just copying, which, she wrote, 'stifled the child's natural creative impulse'. This pioneering work earned her a lectureship at Goldsmiths College in the year the book was published.
Gibbs continued painting, drawing and print-making, and had a number of solo exhibitions. In the Riverside Studios' show Six Hammersmith Artists of 1981 her work was seen alongside that of Edna Ginesi and Mary Fedden, and she also exhibited at the New English Art Club, the Royal Academy, the Artists International Association and the Women's International Art Club. Evacuated out of London in 1939. Gibbs moved to Nottingham, where she founded the Midland Group in 1943, to bring regular exhibitions of contemporary art to the region. She also undertook commissions for the Imperial War Museum who own five of her works, including the oil painting Women's Voluntary Service Clothing Exchange, which shows women and children sorting and trying on clothes. There are drawings of women factory workers making munitions, and nurses busy with blood transfusions. |
Samples of Work
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