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Terry Frost

'Umber and Grey'
1960
Oil on canvas
75 x 52 ins (190.5 x 132.1 cms)

signed, inscribed & dated 1960 verso

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Provenance:

Purchased directly from the artist 1991

Private Collection: 1991 to 2005

Illustrated: Terry Frost by Chris Stevens, Page 51

Although Terry Frost's work rejected specific images, he slowly built up a vocabulary of motifs that included the 'V' that is repeated three times here in 'Umber and Grey'. The 1960's proved a period of change in Frost's work and he began a phase of particularly distinctive work. A new device was employed in Frost's repertoire of forms; the V-shaped wedge and initially Frost used it as a device for tightening composition and yet at the same time this motif reveals Frost's increasing use of ambiguity in form and content, for while serving these compositional functions, the wedge also became a symbol for the female nude. The 'V' has been a recurrent theme throughout the ages as a varying female symbol, and during the same period as 'Umber and Grey' Roger Hilton and the sculptor Hubert Dalwood had also employed the same symbol in separate works.

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