Mary Fedden
(14 August 1915 - ) |
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landscapes, still lifes, flowers Art Work
| Name: |
Mary Fedden |
| Gender: |
Female |
| Place of Birth: |
Bristol, England |
| Nationality: |
British |
| Birth: |
14 August 1915 |
| Death: |
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| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
| Known For: |
landscapes, still lifes, flowers |
| Medium: |
oil painting |
| Method: |
oil painting |
| Style: |
Contemporary |
| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painter
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Biography
Mary Fedden was born in 1915 in Bristol, England, and was trained at the Slade in the mid 1930's. In a book about her work by Mel Gooding (London 1995), Fedden recalled the move from school to art college as, "like going from Hell into Heaven." At the Slade, Fedden studied under the theatre designer Vladimir Polunin, and painted sets for Sadler's Wells.
The breakout of the war interrupted Fedden's career, however. She worked in the Land Army, the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, and as a driver for the NAAFI in Europe. She also painted propaganda murals, and designed sets for the London theatre, an important source of morale boosting entertainment for the city's population. She has described her life at this time as a strange mixture of hard work, fear and hedonism.
Fedden resumed painting in 1946. Her work has remained relatively unchanged, small scale paintings of domestic still life, sometimes with flowers, animals and birds, in rich but subtle color, although there have been shifts towards a greater simplicity and a bold use of black in more recent years. Her precisely arranged, complex compositions often recall those of Winifred Nicholson, where objects are arranged before a window that opens out onto a land or seascape.
Fedden's work as a muralist includes commissions for the Festival of Britain 1951 and Charing Cross and Colindale Hospitals during the 1980s. Since her first exhibition in 1947 at the Mansard Gallery in Heals Department Store, she has exhibited at the Women's International Art Club, becoming Chairman in the late 1950's, the Royal Academy, becoming an Academician in 1992, and with the London Group. Solo exhibitions have been held at the Redfem, the Hamet, and the New Grafton Galleries. Her first retrospective,was at the Royal West of England Academy, was not held until 1996. Fedden has also taught, and in 1958 became the first woman painting tutor at the Royal College of Art. |
Samples of Work
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