A Centenary Celebration of Paul Feiler’s Life and Work

The Paul Feiler Estate and The Redfern Gallery will hold a year-long centenary celebration of the life and work of Paul Feiler (1918-2013), which will include a major retrospective at Jerwood Gallery in Hastings from 21 April to 8 July.

A Centenary Celebration of Paul Feiler’s Life and Work

The modern, British artist Paul Feiler was a member of the Tate St Ives School. He drew upon the influence of his surroundings to produce bodies of work with spiritual significance, an aspect of his art that makes the Jerwood Gallery’s natural surroundings an ideal position from which to host the retrospective.

The artist was not a typical ‘St Ives’ painter; he was always following his own path. Paul Feiler said a statement to Michael Tooby at the time of his 1995 Tate St Ives retrospective:

‘I’m trying to make complex problems very simple, both in my way of thinking and in my painting. I’m trying to avoid profundities and I’m avoiding attributing importance to something that to me seems to be the essence of human existence. I’ve spent my life being anonymous and I’d like my painting to be important because of the anonymity.’ – Paul Feiler

The display will include works that span a long, productive career, from the figurative paintings of the 1940s to the Perspex square reliefs he made in his later years. During the 1960’s, Feiler’s work became more geometric. He set himself a series of technical parameters by which to work before allowing more creative freedom. His thinly-glazed surfaces contained squares and circles with subtle interplay of projection and recession through gradations of tone. A sense of enclosure within his paintings was intended to evoke the sacred areas of classical temples, often incorporating gold or silver leaf dispersed between the quiet movement of colour and light.

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Works have been borrowed from the Tate, the Arts Council Collection, Royal West of England Academy and the Paul Feiler Estate for the exhibition.

When & Where: 21 April to 8 July. Jerwood Gallery, Rock-a-Nore Road,Hastings Old Town,TN34 3DW