St Ives Society of Artists

The St Ives School refers to a group of artists living and working in the Cornish town of St Ives.

The town became a magnet for artists following the extension to West Cornwall of the Great Western Railway in 1877. In 1920 Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada set up a pottery in St Ives, creating the town's first international 20th-century art connection.

In 1928 Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood visited St Ives where they were impressed by the work of local artist Alfred Wallis. This started the development of the Cornish fishing port as an artists' colony.

The St Ives School of Painting was established in the historic Porthmeor studios at the centre of St Ives' artists' quarter in 1938.

With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Ben Nicholson and his then wife the sculptor Barbara Hepworth settled in St Ives, establishing an outpost for the abstract avant-garde movement in West Cornwall. They were soon joined by the prominent Russian Constructivist sculptor Naum Gabo.

After the war ended, a new and younger generation of artists emerged, led by Hepworth and Nicholson (Gabo departed in 1946). From about 1950 a group of younger artists gathered in St Ives who included Peter Lanyon, John Wells, Roger Hilton, Bryan Wynter, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Alexander Mackenzie, Harry Ousey, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Stass Paraskos, Paul Feiler, and Karl Weschke together with the pioneer modern potter, Bernard Leach (Nicholson departed in 1958). It is with this group, together with Hepworth and Nicholson, that the term 'St Ives School' is particularly associated.

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