…he is a universal artist, a man of vision, of musical harmonies of temperament so rare
and tender…full of hope…he is our fool who, in persisting in his folly, has become a wise man.'
Ivan Peries speaking about George Claessen.
Grosvenor Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of works from the Estate of George Claessen, one of the most significant Sri Lankan painters of the 20th century, and a pioneer of abstraction in the region.
Claessen is an important abstract painter and was one of the nine artists who formed the highly influential '43 Group, which came together in Colombo in 1943 under the patronage of Lionel Wendt. Claessen exhibited several times with the group before moving to Australia. He would settle in the UK in 1949. He began experimenting with abstraction as early as 1948, which he would later develop alongside his figurative work. From the 1960s onwards, abstraction became his primary artistic objective.
He participated in the 1956 Venice Biennale and the 1959 São Paolo Biennale, where he won an award. He exhibited extensively in the UK from the 1950s onwards, with shows at New Vision Centre, Bear Lane Gallery and Commonwealth Institute, as well as with the Hampstead Artists' Council and the Islington Art Circle.
As a writer, he published Poems of a Painter in 1967, Poems about Nothing in 1981 and his Collected Poems in 1995.
