Theodore Mendez
Theo Mendez | |
|---|---|
 Theodore Mendez | |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Pop Art |
Theodore Mendez (Theo) 1934-1997 was an artist who taught at Camberwell College of Arts in London for over thirty years. After attending Strand School, he entered Camberwell College of Arts in 1950 as a student, when the likes of Terry Frost, Howard Hodgkin, Euan Uglow, Roy Turner Durrant, Bernard Dunstan and Gillian Ayres were all contemporaries. He returned to teach there in 1958 and from 1976-1984 he was head of the Textile Department at Camberwell College of Arts.
Writing about his work in 1990, he said " My recent work is no way representational of literal...The works are sometimes symbolic of a moment in time - an event or place witnessed, felt or experienced.. The work I do is made up - invented - stimulated by life-enhancing experience... Each work has ultimately to stand by itself without necessarily being part of a series or having a title or clue as to its origin... I love the variety of the medium, the spreading of colour and the interrelation of colour and colour areas... sometimes the work comes almost directly via music, which I listen to constantly - several hours every day - like food and drink, it is essential... if I achieve anything at all, it has, for me, to satisfy lasting contemplation - mystical, intangible.." [1]
His first exhibition was at the Redfern Gallery in London in 1954; he would later show his textile designs at the Victoria & Albert Museum in 1956 and in the same year went on to win the Design Award at the Manchester Colour, Design & Style Centre. Mendez returned to take up a teaching post at Camberwell College of Arts in 1958, the same year as Frank Auerbach would start his time on the staff [2]. Mendez continued to teach full-time, later becoming Head of the Textile Department from 1976 until his retirement in 1984.
He exhibited less in the later years preferring to concentrate on his teaching. He did not diminish his creative output however and his paintings were still hung next to the likes of David Hockney, Patrick Caulfield, Patrick Heron & Roger Hilton in two exhibitions at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1972 & 1978.
Since his death there have been six London Exhibitions, works are in The Museum of London and private collections in France, Australia, New Zealand, America and Great Britain. His work is mainly abstract and often based on landscape, places visited, and music. Theo worked with oil, acrylic and collage on canvas, wood and board. He also made constructions mainly in wood and metal. [3]
His early abstract painting is to be subject to a critical reassessment at the forthcoming exhibition at Whitfield Fine Art in London running 3-26 February, 2010.
Footnotes
- ^ Ian Tregarthen Jenkin, in "Theo Mendez. Paintings" , Exh. Cat., 12-23rd May, London 1998
- ^ Geoff Hassell,Camberwell School of Arts & Crafts. Its Students and Teachers 1943-1960, Woodbridge 1998, p.31
- ^ http://www.londonart.co.uk/sales/cv.asp?artist_id=4303
References
- David Buckman, Artists in Britain since 1945, 2006
- Edward Clark (ed.), Theodore Mendez 1934-1997. Paintings from the late 1950s & early 1960s , exh. cat., London 2010