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Descriptif du lot
Lancelot Ribeiro, born in Bombay in 1933, produced a great range of works across his artistic career – from modernist oil paintings to abstract acrylics, ceramics and wooden sculpture. Ribeiro’s life as an artist began in London in the early 1950s, where he moved to study accountancy, living with his older half-brother, the artist Francis Newton Souza. Partially swayed by his brother’s choice of career, Ribeiro soon abandoned accounting in favor of more creative pursuits, enrolling in part-time drawing classes at St. Martin’s School of Art in 1951. Ribeiro also learned a lot from his brother while they lived together and cites Souza as one of his greatest influences alongside the architecture and culture of their beloved Goa.
In 1954, Ribeiro was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, having been born a citizen of the British Empire. However, a few months later, he received a rare discharge on compassionate grounds with the help of the former High Commissioner of India V.K. Krishna Menon and returned to Bombay where he found work with an insurance company. It was in Bombay that Ribeiro held his first solo show at the Artist Aid Centre in 1961. Over the next few years, the artist would grow in renown, exhibiting his work in several well received shows and completing an important commission for a 12-foot mural from Tata Iron and Steel. Titled Urban Landscape, this monumental work remains on view in the firm’s headquarters.
Ribeiro returned to London in 1962, where he founded the Indian Painter’s Collective with six other artists, exhibiting as a group at India House in 1964. A year earlier, Ribeiro’s first solo show in England was held at Rawinsky Gallery in London. The artist also exhibited his work at Yvon Lambert in Paris and Nicholas Treadwell’s Mobile Art Gallery, which travelled across England. It was around this time that Ribeiro began pioneering the use of what would become acrylic paint, before it became commercially available for fine art purposes. Desiring a medium that allowed impasto but minimized the time required for layers of oil to dry, the forward-thinking artist turned to new synthetic polymers, namely polyvinyl acetate (PVA), a compound that was used for industrial and construction applications. Ribeiro requested samples of PVA and dyes from various chemical manufacturing firms. Imperial Chemical Industries was intrigued enough to send the artist a 22-gallon drum of PVA – the smallest size they made – and various dyes meant for carpets and fabric. Although these materials required a great deal of testing and at times caused the boards he painted on to loudly burst as they contracted, they allowed Ribeiro to create paints with a range of viscosities that accommodated his rapid and spontaneous process.
The present lot, Untitled (Landscape) from 1964, is a striking example of Ribeiro’s early attempts at incorporating this new medium into his oil paintings of urban scenes, and features the subtle impasto he desired from the new medium. “In the early 1960s, Ribeiro painted townscapes over and over again: distinctive images of spires, domes, towers, roofs and geometric blocks outlined in strong black strokes, often with a sun or moon or even multiple planets overhead. His signature, placed prominently in the sky, proclaims his early confidence. Some of the cities are bright and even comical, with oddly teetering towers, roofs like hats and windows like eyes” (K. Hazell, Restless Ribeiro: An Indian Artist in Britain, Bangkok, 2013, p. 17).
Discussing the inspiration for these landscapes, Ribeiro said “none of these landscapes are of actual places but a sort of collective experience…my first influences…were the churches and statuary of the Catholic church in Goa along with the symbolic ritual that went with it” (Artist statement, Ibid., Bangkok, 2013, p. 17). The work’s delicate pastels and geometric forms contrast sharply with the swirling brushstrokes of the sky above, creating a depth to the image. A critic for The Times of India wrote in 1961 that Ribeiro had an “inherent sense of colour and balance. His skill in the portrayal of skies is the best proof of his talents” (D. Buckman, Lancelot Ribeiro: An artist in India and Europe, London, 2014, p. 34).
In the 1970s, Ribeiro lectured at the Commonwealth Institute in the United Kingdom and founded the multicultural Rainbow Art Group to highlight the important artistic contributions of London’s various minority groups to the cultural life of the country. In 1986-87, a retrospective of his work was held at the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery and Swiss Cottage Library, and in the 1990s he held a series of solo exhibitions in Germany. Following a career that spanned over six decades, the artist died in 2010. Major posthumous exhibitions of his work were held in London at Asia House in 2013; Burgh House Museum in 2016; and the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2017.
In 1954, Ribeiro was conscripted into the Royal Air Force, having been born a citizen of the British Empire. However, a few months later, he received a rare discharge on compassionate grounds with the help of the former High Commissioner of India V.K. Krishna Menon and returned to Bombay where he found work with an insurance company. It was in Bombay that Ribeiro held his first solo show at the Artist Aid Centre in 1961. Over the next few years, the artist would grow in renown, exhibiting his work in several well received shows and completing an important commission for a 12-foot mural from Tata Iron and Steel. Titled Urban Landscape, this monumental work remains on view in the firm’s headquarters.
Ribeiro returned to London in 1962, where he founded the Indian Painter’s Collective with six other artists, exhibiting as a group at India House in 1964. A year earlier, Ribeiro’s first solo show in England was held at Rawinsky Gallery in London. The artist also exhibited his work at Yvon Lambert in Paris and Nicholas Treadwell’s Mobile Art Gallery, which travelled across England. It was around this time that Ribeiro began pioneering the use of what would become acrylic paint, before it became commercially available for fine art purposes. Desiring a medium that allowed impasto but minimized the time required for layers of oil to dry, the forward-thinking artist turned to new synthetic polymers, namely polyvinyl acetate (PVA), a compound that was used for industrial and construction applications. Ribeiro requested samples of PVA and dyes from various chemical manufacturing firms. Imperial Chemical Industries was intrigued enough to send the artist a 22-gallon drum of PVA – the smallest size they made – and various dyes meant for carpets and fabric. Although these materials required a great deal of testing and at times caused the boards he painted on to loudly burst as they contracted, they allowed Ribeiro to create paints with a range of viscosities that accommodated his rapid and spontaneous process.
The present lot, Untitled (Landscape) from 1964, is a striking example of Ribeiro’s early attempts at incorporating this new medium into his oil paintings of urban scenes, and features the subtle impasto he desired from the new medium. “In the early 1960s, Ribeiro painted townscapes over and over again: distinctive images of spires, domes, towers, roofs and geometric blocks outlined in strong black strokes, often with a sun or moon or even multiple planets overhead. His signature, placed prominently in the sky, proclaims his early confidence. Some of the cities are bright and even comical, with oddly teetering towers, roofs like hats and windows like eyes” (K. Hazell, Restless Ribeiro: An Indian Artist in Britain, Bangkok, 2013, p. 17).
Discussing the inspiration for these landscapes, Ribeiro said “none of these landscapes are of actual places but a sort of collective experience…my first influences…were the churches and statuary of the Catholic church in Goa along with the symbolic ritual that went with it” (Artist statement, Ibid., Bangkok, 2013, p. 17). The work’s delicate pastels and geometric forms contrast sharply with the swirling brushstrokes of the sky above, creating a depth to the image. A critic for The Times of India wrote in 1961 that Ribeiro had an “inherent sense of colour and balance. His skill in the portrayal of skies is the best proof of his talents” (D. Buckman, Lancelot Ribeiro: An artist in India and Europe, London, 2014, p. 34).
In the 1970s, Ribeiro lectured at the Commonwealth Institute in the United Kingdom and founded the multicultural Rainbow Art Group to highlight the important artistic contributions of London’s various minority groups to the cultural life of the country. In 1986-87, a retrospective of his work was held at the Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery and Swiss Cottage Library, and in the 1990s he held a series of solo exhibitions in Germany. Following a career that spanned over six decades, the artist died in 2010. Major posthumous exhibitions of his work were held in London at Asia House in 2013; Burgh House Museum in 2016; and the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2017.