Cecil Collins

Background

Collins was born in Plymouth and worked first as a mechanic at a firm based in Devonport.

Education

From 1924 to 1927 he attended Plymouth School of Artist

Career

From 1951 to 1975 he taught at the Central School of Artist Later, one of his pupils was Ginger Gilmour. Collins was awarded an Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1979.

British Broadcasting Corporation Radio ran a program about him in 1981 in the Conversations with Artists series, with Edward Lucie-Smith.

A retrospective exhibition of his prints was held at the Tate Gallery in 1981. A retrospective of his paintings took place (before Collins died) in 1989.

His widow Elisabeth died in 2007 and, in 2008, 250 of Collins" paintings worth £1 million were given to museums and galleries in the United Kingdom. In honour of the centenary of his birth, an exhibition of Collins" work took place at Tate Britain in Autumn 2008. 1935 - Bloomsbury Gallery, London, England

1936 - International Surrealist Exhibition - New Burlington Galleries, London, England

1942 - Toledo Museum of Fine Art, United States of America

1948 - New Paintings by Cecil Collins - Lefevre Gallery, London, England

1950 - New Paintings - Heffer Gallery, Cambridge, England

1951 - Leicester Galleries

1953 - Society of Mural Painters

1953 - Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

1954 - Arts Council, London

1956 - Leicester Galleries

1959 - Whitechapel Gallery, London

1961 - Gallery Zygos, Athens, Greece

1964 - Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh, United States of America

1965 - Arthur Tooth & Sons

1967 - Crane Kalman Gallery

1971 - Britain"s Contribution to Surrealism - Hamet Gallery, London, England

1972 - Retrospective Exhibition.

Drawings, Paintings, Watercolours, Gouaches and Paintings 1936-1968

1981 - New Works - Anthony d"Offay, London, England

1981 - The Prints of Cecil Collins - Tate Gallery, London, England

1983 - Plymouth Arts Centre

1984 - Festival Gallery, Aldeburgh

1988 - Recent Paintings - Anthony d"Offay, London, England

1989 - Tate Gallery, London.

Achievements

• In 1927 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art where he won the William Rothenstein Life Drawing Prize.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Vision of the Fool
  • The Vision of the Fool
  • The Vision of the Fool and other writings by Cecil Collins (2002-10-04)