Stephen Gilbert (British 1910-2007)
Son of a sculptor, Alfred Gilbert, he first trained at the Slade School, London, 1929-32 and then went to study in Paris, 1938-39. After showing in London with the Leicester Gallery and at the Royal Academy, Gilbert had his first solo exhibition with Wertheim Gallery, in 1938.
He began to paint CoBrA style pictures in the early 40's, at least 5 years before the formation of the CoBrA group in 1948.After the World War II Gilbert returned to live in Paris, where he exhibited with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and Salon des Surindépendants. In 1953 Gilbert organized a series of 12 lithographs, which included prints by himself, Constant and Hilton. Both Constant and Gilbert began to work in three dimensions constructing . metal reliefs, objects, sculpture and even houses.
He was awarded many sculpture prizes, notably by Foundation Gulbenkian in 1962 and Biennale de Tokyo in 1965. He was working with metal until 1986 when he returned to abstract painting.
Public collections include
Arts Council of Great Britain, London
Tate Gallery, London
British Council
Belfast Art Gallery
Sheffield Art Gallery
University of East Anglia
Leicester University
Stedelijk Muesum, Amsterdam
Aalborg Museum, Denmark
Esbjerg Museum, Denmark
Silkeborg Museum, Denmark
Solo Exhibitions
1938, Wertheim Gallery, London
1941, Picture Hire Gallery, Dublin
1949, London Gallery, London
1950, Galerie Colette Allendy, Paris
1951, Galerie Arnaud (with Greta Sauer), Paris
1952, Galerie Le Canard, Amsterdam
1961, Structures 1960-61, Drian Galleries, London
1963, Structures 1962-63, Drian Galleries, London
1966, Structures 1961-65, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffeild and City Art Gallery, Hull
1971, Court Gallery, Copenhagen
1972, Early Watercolous, Gallerie Lerche, Aalborg, Denmark
1984, Galerie Nova Spectra, The Hague; Recent Watercolours, Galleri Prostengaarden, Dannemare, Denmark
1987, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris
1992, Stephen Gilbert - Sculpture of the 60s and Works on Paper, Belgrave Gallery, London
2006, Shaping Modern Sculpture: Stephen Gilbert and Jocelyn Chewett in post-war Paris, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
Group Exhibitions
1933, London Group, London
1936, Royal Academy, London
1941, Irish Exhibition of Living Art, National Gallery, Dublin
1942, Dublin Painters Gallery, Dublin
1943, White Stag Group, Dublin
1945, Young Irish Painters, Arcade Gallery, London
1948, Salon des Surindépendants, Paris
1948-49, CoBrA Group, Denmark, Holland, Belgium
1949, Artistes Anglais Contemporains, British Council, Paris;
1950-1956, Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris
1951, British Exhibition, Knokke, Belgium
1952, Salon d'Octobre, Paris
1953, Galerie Suzanne Michel, Paris
1954, Artist v Machine, Building Centre, London; Salon de la Jeaune Sculpteur, Paris; Group Espace, Paris
1961, Construction: England 1950-1960, Drian Gallery, London, Galerie K-K, Copenhagen
1962, Cobras et Apres, Galerie d'Aujourd'hui, Brussels; British Constructivist Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, USA; Constructivisme, Galerie Dautzenberg, Paris
1963, Construction England, Arts Council, London
1964, Profile III, Bochum Museum, Germany; Venice Biennale
1965, Tokio Biennale
1966, Structure, National Museum of Wales; International Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Musée Rodin, Paris
1972, The Non-Objective World 1939 - 55, Annely Juda, London
1974, Cobra, Nielson Gallery, Boston
1977, Contemporary Sculpture, Centre-Socio-Cultural d'Orly, France
1978, Cobra 1948 - 78, Court Gallery, Copenhagen
1980, Bilan de l'Art Contemporain, Quebec
1981, Paris 1937-1957, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1982, Aftermath - New Images of Man, Barbican, London
1983, CoBrA 1948-51, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris
1990, Méthode, Seoul, South Korea
1992, Automatismo Paralelos l'Europe, Madrid and Las Palmas