William Gear
| William Gear | |
|---|---|
William Gear in his Edgbaston studio, August 1979. Photo: David Gear
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| Born |
2 August 1915 Methil, Fife |
| Died | 27 February 1997 (aged 81) Birmingham |
| Nationality | British |
| Education |
Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh University. |
| Known for | Abstract painting |
Edinburgh College of Art,
William Gear RA RBSA (2 August 1915 – 27 February 1997) was a Scottish painter, most notable for his abstract compositions.
Gear was born in Methil in the south-east of Fife, Scotland, the son of Janet Gear (1886-1955) and Porteous Gear (1881-1965), a coal miner. At Buckhaven High School he won the Dux Arts Medal (1932), and studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1932 to 1936, where fellow students included Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Margaret Mellis.
He first exhibited in 1934 with the Royal Scottish Academy and Society of Scottish Artists, and his postgraduate scholarship (1936–37) included History of Art studies with Professor David Talbot Rice at Edinburgh University.
Awarded a travelling scholarship (1937–38), Gear visited France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Turkey. This trip included a stay in Paris studying with Fernand Léger. At summer school in Arbroath (1938) he met Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. A brief interest in Surrealism led him to exhibit with the New Era Group in Edinburgh in 1939.
Called up for military service in 1940, and commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in 1941, during the Second World War Gear served with the Royal Corps of Signals. He met Merlyn Evans in Durban, en route to his first posting in the Middle East. Gear subsequently served in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Cyprus, before participating in the Allied invasion of Italy, where in Siena and Florence he held his first solo exhibitions in 1944. After VE Day he worked for the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives section (MFAA) of the Allied Control Commission, with responsibility for securing art works in Lower Saxony in the British Zone of occupied postwar Germany. During his travels through Europe he also worked to promote local artists suffering from wartime deprivations, including Karl Otto Götz.
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