artist: Bernard Kay (British 1927-2021)
medium: pen and brush ink on paper
dimensions: 29 1/2 x 37 1/2 cm framed size (approx)
unsigned, page from Kay's sketchbook, circa 1955
Provenance: Roe + Moore, London
presented in a new shadow box hand finished timber frame with archival matboard and non-reflective UV glass
AU $950 (approx US $620 / 580 EUROS / 87,000 yen / 495 GBP - for exact current value visit xe.com)
* In 1954 Kay won a French government scholarship to study in Paris, for painting at the Académie Ranson and etching at the Atelier Friedlaender. Later that year, Kay travelled to Vallauris in the south of France where he met Picasso’s model and muse Sylvette David, who introduced Bernard into the circle of artists around Picasso.
artist biography
Bernard Kay was born in 1927. He was a British artist.
Kay was born raised in Southport where his father owned a bicycle shop. He knew that he wanted to be an artist from the age of nine and his family supported that choice. After attending the Liverpool School of Art in 1943, Bernard went to the Royal Academy School and spent a year studying drawing. In the 1950s he taught drawing and after winning a scholarship to study in Paris, he met and mixed with many of the famous artists of the Paris art scene, including Maurice Esteve and Picasso. Lydia Corbett, Picasso’s "ponytail model" was a lifelong friend. While in Paris, he studied the process of aquatint etching under the pioneering artist Johnny Friedlaender. It was during this time that he travelled throughout the French countryside and collected drawings that would form the basis for his architectural landscape paintings. During his years in London he was part of the "London Scene"and his friends included David Hockney andNicky Clarke. Kay focused on large canvases in an abstract expressionist tradition, before returning to landscape paintings worked in a structured style using an earthy, muted palette.
He passed away in 2021.