KATHLEEN GUTHRIE (1905 –
1981)
“Wales”
Oil Painting on Canvas. 20”
x 20 ¼” (507 x 768mm)
Signed. Titled on original
label
Provenance – From the
collection of Leicestershire Education Authority IMAGE
Kathleen Guthrie (nee Maltby) was a painter
in oil and opaque watercolour, silkscreen printer, textile designer and mural
painter. She also wrote children’s
books. She was born in Feltham,
Middlesex and educated at St Michael’s Hall, Hove. She studied art at the Slade School from 1921
to 1923, under Henry Tonks and at the Royal Academy Schools from 1923 to
1926. She married the artist Robin
Guthrie in 1927 but later divorced and then in 1941 she married Cecil
Stephenson the constructivist painter.
She was influenced by Stanley Spencer’s “The Nativity”, and also by the
French Impressionists and her husband’s more conventional Augustus John-like
style but later moved from pictures with a whimsical, poetic feeling towards
pure abstracts. In 1931 she went for
two years to Boston with Robin Guthrie where he was invited with Rodney Burn to
become a co-director of the School of Fine Art.
In 1932 Kathleen Guthrie had a solo show of figure paintings and
landscapes at the Stace Horne Gallery, Boston.
When she married Stephenson and mixed with the avant-garde of Hampstead
her style changed again. In 1948 she
produced a mural for a local welfare centre
and in 1951 Wolf Mankowitz’s Little Gallery held a solo show of her
work at the Crane Gallery in
Manchester. She also exhibited at the
Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, Goupil Gallery, the New English Art Club and
the London Group. In 1966 a
retrospective exhibition was held at Drian Galler. She illustrated several children’s books
including “The Magic Button” and “Magic Button on the Moon” which contain short
poems by her. In 1941 a painting by Kathleen Guthrie was purchased by the
Government. She has also had her work
reproduced in “The Studio” magazine. She
lived in London.
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