Paul Feiler: One Hundred Years

In 2018, the Paul Feiler Estate and The Redfern Gallery will be running a year-long centenary celebration of the life and work of Paul Feiler (1918-2013), which will include a major retrospective at Jerwood Gallery; Paul Feiler: One Hundred Years.

Feiler was one of the foremost figures of the Modern Art movement emanating from the South West of England, centred in St Ives, fascinated by the architecture of space and the ambiguities of visual experience. The British artist's primary inspiration was the meditative landscape and unique light of Cornwall; his lyrical abstract works from the 50s and 60s relate to the natural forms he was surrounded by.

Works have been borrowed from the Tate, the Arts Council Collection, Royal West of England Academy and the Paul Feiler Estate to create a truly inspiring and revealing exhibition of an artist who was constantly innovating, even into his final years. 

With the positioning of Jerwood Gallery being surrounded by extreme natural forms, it feels like an appropriate position to host this retrospective.  Paul Feiler: One Hundred Years will run from 21 April - 8 July 2018.

 About Paul Feiler

Paul Feiler was born in Frankfurt in 1918. His family moved to London in 1936. After graduating from The Slade, from 1946 onwards he taught at the West of England College of Art in Bristol, where in 1960 he became head of painting. In 1953, with the proceeds of his first sell-out exhibition at The Redfern Gallery, Feiler bought a disused chapel near Penzance which he converted into a home. In 1974 he and his family moved permanently to Cornwall and, a year later, he took over his friend Bryan Wynter’s studio at Paul (originally used by Stanhope Forbes) which he maintained throughout his life.

Feiler’s work is held in numerous British collections, including the Tate; the Victoria and Albert Museum; Kettle’s Yard and the Arts Council. International collections featuring his work include the Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, DC; the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris and the Toronto Art Gallery in Canada.