Modern Painters of West Cornwall - Studio Selection 2010 10/02/2010 - 27/02/2010 Messum's Cork Street
foreword
The inspirational confluence of light and landscape at the westerly tip of the Cornish peninsular has proved popular with visual artists for several generations. In the post-war period it was at the hub of the modernist avant-garde and the area has attracted painters and sculptors of the highest calibre from across Britain and beyond.
Best known for their championing of the plein-air artists of Newlyn and St Ives who were working at the turn of the last century, Messum’s interest in the region and the individuals it continues to inspire extends right up to the present day. Many of the paintings selected as part of this year’s studio selection are by artists who have, or have had, significant connections with Messum’s over the years. For the large part, their work explores that fertile territory that lies between figuration and abstraction and represents some of the very best that this westernmost edge of England has to offer.
