Ruskin Spear
1911-1990
Born in Hammersmith, Spear attended the School of Art there, winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1930, where he studied under Rothenstein, Gilbert Spencer and Charles Mahoney. Whilst at the RCA he worked as an assistant to Egerton Cooper. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1932 where he continued to exhibit regularly. In 1955 he was elected a full Royal Academician. Spear also showed regularly with the London Group and had one-man shows at the Leicester Galleries. In 1957 he exhibited with Weight, Hogarth and Greaves in Moscow, and in 1980 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Royal Academy, London. His work is held in many public collections including the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Between 1940 and 1945 he was commissioned by the WAAC to paint in England and he took part in the Recording Britain scheme. From 1941 to 1950 he taught at Croydon, St Martin's and Hammersmith Schools of Art, subsequently teaching at the RCA. He was awarded a CBE in 1979. Initially influenced by Sickert and the Camden Town painters, and in portraiture by the Euston Road School, his work is concerned with subject, observation, an element of narrative and a sense of satire and humour. Some works use improvisatory, partially concluded forms which give a sense of life and movement to his figures and portraits. All his work has a strong sense of location and identity.