Eve Kirk Explained

Eve Kirk
Birth Date:1900 7, df=y
Birth Place:London, England
Death Place:Siena, Italy
Field:Painting
Training:Slade School of Fine Art

Eve Kirk (22 July 1900 - 1969) was a British landscape and decorative painter.

Life and career

Kirk was born in London on 22 July 1900.[1] She studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1919 to 1922,[2] and later travelled to France, Italy and Greece. Her first solo exhibition was at the Paterson Gallery in 1930.[3] Augustus John - who later painted her portrait - wrote an introduction to the exhibition catalogue[4] in which he said:

"With a curious swiftness and certainty she has captured a method, a technique which seems to provide a perfect means for the interpretation of the subjects of her choice, the streets, the quays and the market-places of Provence, Italy or London."[5] [6]

Kirk later exhibited at Arthur Tooth & Sons, in 1932 and 1935,[7] [8] and alongside Paul Nash in 1939 and at the Lefevre Gallery in 1949.[9] During the Second World War, Kirk worked for civil defence in London, but continued to paint and held an exhibition in 1943 at the Leicester Galleries.[10] Her painting Bomb Damage in the City was shown as part of the exhibition of National War Pictures at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1945. She was commissioned to decorate the Roman Catholic Church of God The Holy Ghost, Penygloddfa in Newtown, Powys, in the mid-1940s.[11] [12] In the mid-1950s she emigrated to Italy and ceased to paint. She died in Siena in 1969.

Notes and References

  1. News: Eve Kirk. 8 July 2013. The Times. 10 December 1969. 13.
  2. Book: Morris, Edward. Public Art Collections in North-West England: A History and Guide. 2001. Liverpool University Press. 0853235279. 155.
  3. Web site: Eve Kirk. Tate. 8 July 2013.
  4. Fincham. David. Art. The Spectator. 22 March 1930. 144. 5308. 473–474. 0038-6952.
  5. The Studio. 1930. 99. 369. The Journal.
  6. Web site: Eve Kirk. ArtFortune.com. 8 July 2013.
  7. News: Miss Eve Kirk. 8 July 2013. The Times. 6 May 1932. 12.
  8. News: Art Exhibitions. The Times. 17 July 1935. 12.
  9. Book: Frances Spalding. Frances Spalding. Antique Collectors' Club. 1990. 20th Century Painters and Sculptors . 1-85149-106-6.
  10. Book: Alicia Foster. Tate Publishing. 2004. Tate Women Artists. 1-85437-311-0.
  11. Book: Haslam, Richard. The Buildings Of Wales: Powys. 1992. Penguin. 174.
  12. Book: David Buckman. Art Dictionaries Ltd. 2006. Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L . 0-953260-95-X.