ERIC MEADUS (1931 – 70)

THE LASTING LEGACY

Paintings & Drawings for his 70th anniversary year

29 September — 13 October 2001

Interest in ERIC MEADUS’ work has grown ever since he first exhibited at Southampton Art Gallery in the ’60s. To mark his 70th anniversary year, this show highlights his development and achievement.

Study à la Cubism: Guitar with Bowl of Lemons 1958 gouache

Besides drawing, his other passion was for music: in 1957, during a brief emigration to Canada, he was without access to a piano, so he took up painting for creative outlet. For the next decade, he relentlessly studied styles and techniques of modern (mostly Parisian) masters, starting with Van Gogh – his idol – via Gauguin, Matisse, Dufy, Picasso and Braque to Ivon Hitchens et al. After being immersed in this diverse artistic mélange, he managed – in the short time left to him – to find his own artistic “voice”, combining masterly control of line with a glowing palette: trademarks of the mature expressive painter he had become.

The celebratory nature of much of his work leads some to dismiss it as slight, as though expressing joy is somehow less artistically “authentic” than the expression of suffering. However, its “otherness”, the sudden change of tone in his final year (foreshadowing the death of his sister only three months before his own) should be sufficient to undermine any such unperceptive descriptions of mere whimsicality. The jewels Meadus produced in his last few months must place him firmly in the ranks of the belatedly recognised “square pegs” of The British School, while meriting comparison with many a more acknowledged European Post-Impressionist. Here is a man ever wondering, not finding (that was his tragedy), but still unconquerably seeking beyond (which was his triumph).

He was so prolific that all the many shows since his death have included work previously unseen (as here), as well as some familiar pieces which are always hung.

Swaythling Corner House c.1968-9 brown ink

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