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IN MEMORIAM: Sir Terry Frost. Cont'd.
Photo:
Terry in July, 2002. "You knew if you went to have a chat to him, you'd
come away feeling better than when you went in," Susan Daniel-McElroy,
Director, Tate St. Ives. Photo Andrew Dunkley © Tate
When I phoned Tate St. Ives to get through to Susan Daniel-McElroy, I was immediately struck by a sombre mood in the gallery. Press officer Ina Cole shared the feeling. "We're all rather sad here about Terry passing away. Over the last ten years or so he was always popping in, and we'd come to regard him as a friend of the Gallery." Susan Daniel-McElroy agreed with this. Frost had been a pivotal figure in the St. Ives scene for many years, and had enthusiastically supported the Tate project. He was terribly supportive. He was fun, such good fun. He had such a good sense of humour. You knew if you went to have a chat to him, you'd come away feeling better than when you went in. An ordinary day would expand into an unusual day because of the conversation you'd had with him!. He'd always tell you stories. Terry would often go off into great stories about things that had happened. He told me a great story about Ben Nicholson. Terry had a studio in the Porthmeor complex. Ben Nicholson was in the same run of studios. They did engage in debate and conversation. Terry, when he finished a painting, would often ask Ben to come and have a look at it. There was a painting in our February show, Walk along the Quay (1951) Terry finished that, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it, because it kind of emerged, he was grappling at the time with his own abstract language. Very much influenced by Nicholson, I would say, and I think Terry would have agreed. Ben came in and sat down in total silence for half and hour looking at it. Terry said he was in absolute trepidation, wondering what Ben Nicholson was going to say at the end of this. After that great lengthy time, which seemed like eons, because Terry was totally non-plussed and unable to speak, he got up and shook Terry's hand and said - Terry - you have everything you will need for your work for the future, in that painting. And then he just walked out!
Photo:
Terry Frost, Installation: Contrasts in Red, Black and White,
(2002/2003) Photo © Jon Pratty.
I think I would take that as a great compliment. What it showed is the importance of mixing with your peers, and engaging in critical debate. It really reveals how you cannot shut yourself away in your home and not engage with your peers. He fell ill while we were making the exhibition. Just before Christmas. He thought he's sprained his back by lifting the central element from the large work from our show. He had a check up and they found he had cancer of the prostate and secondary tumours. Unless a miracle happened then, you knew things were going to happen, quite soon, inevitably. But I found Terry's attitude quite inspirational, throughout, he was incredibly straightforward, and humorous, even. That reflected his character throughout his life, though. He was a man you could very easily underestimate, because he would often almost downplay his work. If you didn't know the context, or the art historical background, you could very easily underestimate him. He was incredibly clever, and the idea of taking a risk with his installation, Contrasts in Red, Black and White (2002/2003) - he knew I was up for it. No one had ever let him do it. Why was this the case? There were all manner of reasons. The way I work with artists, I very often have a connection with artists, a belief, and faith in them, which has always paid dividends." "I told him he could do whatever he wanted to. I didn't see the point in anything else really.
The work of Sir Terry Frost, RA, (1915 - 2003) can be seen at Tate St. Ives in the Pier Arts Centre Collection, and there's also a very large wall painting, Three Shades of Blue on the ground floor of the gallery. "We're going to hang on to that as long as we can," said Susan Daniel-McElroy. "He will always be in the St. Ives Collection display, as well." Elsewhere in the UK, Tate Britain, The V & A, The British Museum, Warwick Arts Centre, Leeds City Art Gallery and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art are good places to see more work by this influential and inspirational artist.
End of the article.