St Ives Group history

He retired from fishing and settled in St Ives in 1890 while in his mid-30s, setting up a marine rag and bone business selling odds and ends to local fishermen.

Wallis made this painting in 1928, the same year that he was visited and "discovered" by the London-based artists Ben Nicholson and Christopher "Kit" Wood.

Naum Gabo made this sculpture after moving from Russia to the United Kingdom in 1935 and residing throughout the Second World War in St Ives.

When the Second World War broke out (in 1939), many artists fled London to escape the bombing.

Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham moved from Scotland to St Ives in 1940 on the recommendation of her friend Margaret Mellis.

But by the end of the war in 1945, Nicholson, Hepworth, and Gabo emerged as figureheads for a new generation of artists who had started to combine St Ives's coastal colors, shapes, and forms with the languages of Russian Constructivism, Fauvism, Cubism, and Expressionism.

After making a visit to Switzerland in 1948, Barnes-Graham made a series of drawings and paintings based on the sharp angles, rough surfaces and transparency of glaciers.

He captured the wild tangles of colour and energy around him with flat pattern and vivid, heightened colour, as seen in such works as Harbour Window with Two Figures: St Ives, (1950).

The 1951 Festival of Britain, a huge showcase to promote excellence in British art and design, gave exposure to many of the St Ives School's founding members including Hepworth, Nicholson, Lanyon, and Frost.

1955:Robert Gavron joins printing company.

Notable visitors to the area included British painter Francis Bacon, who borrowed Nicholson's studio for three months, and the American Abstract Expressionist Mark Rothko, who was invited to stay by artist Paul Feiler in 1958.

St Ives (1959)A short film by British Pathe documenting the rise of popularity in St Ives, featuring footage of Barbara Hepworth at work on sculptures.

Lanyon made this painting in response to the wreckage of the French trawler named Jeanne Gougy which was dashed onto the jagged rocks at Land's End in 1962.

St Ives was founded by Robert Gavron in 1964.

he St Ives Historical Society is an outgrowth of the Guild of St Ives, a theatrical group which has been an integral part of the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire since the early 1980's.

Taking St Ives public in 1985, Gavron raised the capital to begin making a series of acquisitions, buying up many of its smaller rivals in order to build up its market position.

1986:Acquisition of Clays Limited.

1987:Acquisition of Burrups Limited.

1989:Acquisition of A.D. Weiss Printing.

By 1991, St Ives was experiencing a cut in its profits.

Robert Gavron retired from his position as company chairman in 1993, taking a non-executive directorship while still holding a sizable share in the company he had built over 30 years into the foremost U.K. commercial printer.

Despite rising paper costs--which caused the magazine sector to stagnate for a time in 1995--St Ives began to see renewed profit growth.

1996:Acquisition of Perlmuter Printing.

These developments gave a boost to St Ives in 1997, as it was called on to print many of the related financial documents.

Gavron maintained his shareholding through the middle of the decade, finally selling the majority of his interest in 1998.

2000:Company announces two-year, £100 million investment program.

At the same time St Ives announced its continued commitment to investing in its future, promising some £100 million in investments through the year 2002.

Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture Garden (2011)A film made by TateShots to celebrate Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture Garden, featuring archival footage of Barbara Hepworth in her studio.

The Art of Cornwall (2015)A BBC 4 documentary on the art colony of St Ives and the vital role it played in the development of British art, featuring work by Christopher Kit Wood, Alfred Wallis, Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

Patrick Heron review - brilliant, colourful and completely out of orderBy Rachel Cooke / The Guardian / May 20, 2018