Gerald Wilde

Greatly admired by the late David Sylvester as 'one of our foremost painters,' Wilde maintains a unique position amongst the British post-war painters having been one of only a very few British artists to explore to a consistently high level an abstract expressionist style more commonly associated with the New York School. A contemporary of Sutherland, Moore and Bacon, Wilde shared with those artists, in 1955, the distinction of presenting a one-man show at the ICA, an exhibition which garnered much critical acclaim. In the late 70s, his work had matured and developed into an intensely personal style, unlike that of any of his close peers. Despite being considered 'the outstanding painter of his generation' by many artists and intellectuals of the day, Wilde's work and reputation have lately suffered from a neglect, which, Sylvester points out, is 'thanks to our obtuseness and fate's perverseness.'