GALLERY

SANDRA BLOW

Born in London in 1925, Sandra's innovative approach to painting during the 1950's ensured her position as one of the leaders of the post- war British abstract movement.

Sandra studied at St. Martin's (1941-46) and then at the Royal Academy Schools, before leaving for Italy, where her mentor Alberto Burri proved to be a powerful influence. Burri introduced Sandra to the potentials of collage and the tensions between textures therein. From her mentor, Sandra distilled her own form of reductive abstract expressionism, preoccupied with space, matter and movement.

Fuelled also by the Renaissance principals of geometry, light and scale, Sandra set about treating form with it's own innate reality and rejecting subject matter definable in terms of representation:

'I can remember that extraordinary sense of shedding everything, of leaving all the known tracks. And then just looking for something that could be my own, of interpreting the actual structure of painting which seemed to connect with abstract art- structure and space - and finding my own language in it.'

Throughout the fifties Sandra enjoyed regular one-woman shows at Gimple Fils, London and soon exhibited all over the world. In 1978 Sandra was elected Royal Academician and in 1994 the Royal Academy honoured her achievements in a solo show.