1905-1994
Robert Medley's career spanned much of the twentieth century. He followed a distinctive path by building bridges between the abstract and the figurative, between public statement and private reverie. His paintings, nonetheless, parallel the concurrent work of artists as varied as Roger Hilton, Graham Sutherland and Peter Lanyon.
What stands out is the sophistication of Medley's touch. As John Berger recently wrote: "What makes Medley's work so rewarding and unusual is its dexterity. Dexterity in its strict sense refers to an inborn or acquired skill in dealing with, or being at home with, the tangible. Something close to the fingertipsDexterity also implies panache, a quality of gesture. One can think of the cast of a master fly-fisherman. The stance of a prodigious violinist. The aim from the shoulder of a champion billiard player. Medley's paintings have the concentration and elegance of such performances."
Robert Medley
1905
Born in London.
1919
Educated at Gresham's School, Norfolk.
1921
Enrolled at Byam Show School of Art and attended the Royal Academy School for two months, where he was impressed by George Clausen.
1923
Succeeded in entering the Slade, where Tonks and Steer were teaching.
Began a friendship with Henry Moore and met Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury set. Admiration for Cézanne, Derain and Matisse.
1926
Travelled to Paris, where Medley lived for most of the following two years.
Met Marcel Duchamp and attended the first night of Cocteau's Orphee, which greatly impressed him. First real impact of Picasso, Braque, Rouault, Leger and Matisse. Read Paul Gleizes.
1928
In Paris again, met Berard and Tchelitchev, Tzara and Picabia. Returned to London, lived in Fitzroy Square. Exhibited in the London Group and at the Goupil Gallery.
1929
Frequently in Paris. The artist's experience there taught him the necessity of allowing physical sensuality into his painting, which had been hard to realize before.
First visit to the south of France, going to Duncan Grant's villa at Cassis.
Through Rupert Doone, the artist met dancers and artists connected with the Diaghilev Ballet.
1930
Member of the London Group, and the London Artist Association.
1932
Began to teach at Chelsea School of Art. Moore and Sutherland were also on the staff.
In Cambridge, helped to lay the foundations of the new and experimental Group Theatre.
1933
Renewed contact with W.H. Auden, who wrote the Dance of Death for the Group Theatre. Henry Moore was commissioned to design a mask for Death and Medley designed the costumes and lighting. Rupert Doone devised the choreography and was co-producer with Tyrone Guthrie.
1934
Met Christopher Isherwood and painted his portrait.
Visited Berlin, where Rupert Doone produced the dances for La Belle Helene for Max Reinhardt.
1935-36
Produced sets and costumes for the Group Theatre season at the Westminster Theatre, London.
1934-36
Work as a painter disrupted by theatre activities. Medley painted mostly in gouache. Began to try to relate work to social context.
1936
Helped to establish the Artists International Association with Misha Black, Herbert Read and others.
Moved away from the ideals of the Bloomsbury set and became more friendly with more abstract artists including Henry Moore, Sutherland, Piper, Zadkine, Wadsworth and Paul Nash.
Attended the first meeting to launch the surrealist movement in England at Roland Penrose's house - The Jokers was exhibited at the first surrealist show in London in 1937.
1937
Ascent of F6 by Auden and Isherwood produced at the Mercury Theatre: sets, costumes and masks were by Medley; the production was by Doone and William Devlin and Alec Guinness were in the cast.
Exhibited six pictures, including Tenement Buildings and The Jokers at Agnews with Francis Bacon, Roy de Maistre and John Piper.
1938
Returned to the theatre to design sets and costumes for On the Frontier by Auden and Isherwood.
Won the competition for the Old Vic safety curtain design - as a memorial for Lilian Baylis.
Painted Red Street Scene, a more social-realist picture with expressionist-caricature elements of distortion and artificial, invented colour.
Moved to Wharton Street, Islington.
After six years work in the theatre Medley got much more involved in painting again. Fearing sentimentality, Medley began to eliminate elements of fantasy.
1940
Visited Newcastle, Nottingham and Grimsby as official war artist. After the fall of France, Medley volunteered for the army.
1941 - 45
Posted to Middle East, based mostly at Cairo G.H.Q. Intensive travels in Middle East from Syria to Algeria.
1943 - 44
The artist travelled intensively in America with the British Military Mission. Medley saw modern French art again in American Museums, met Keynes and Lopokova again, on an economic mission, as well as Leger, Lincoln Kirstein, Granville Barker, Geoffrey Gorer and others.
1945
Following demobilisation, the artist returned to London and taught at Chelsea School of Art, where Ceri Richards was on the staff.
Influenced by Delacroix's Orientalism, Medley tried to formulate Middle-Eastern experiences through allegory by exploiting mythological themes.
Met Minton, Vaughan and Colquhoun, and admired their work whilst mistrusting certain English romantic roots.
1948 - 49
Lefevre Gallery exhibition. After this, a radical shift in attitude to painting: less interest in successful picture making, far more awareness of the immensity of the individual mark. Medley began to make a heightened use of touch and accident.
1950
Cyclist pictures commenced, still showing the need to impose form and pattern.
1951
To Slade as visiting tutor in reformed stage design department.
Began concentrated phase of reassessment of painting, and felt the need to disrupt much of what he had earlier formulated for himself. Became suspicious of stylisation.
1952 - 54
Antique Room series. Some of Medley's last paintings to retain a closed, naturalistic space. The paintings, were, however, also an attempt to get more layers of association into a painting, in depth. Increasingly trusted intuition and appreciated that visual appearances were merely an accidental starting point.
Distrust of decorative colour, search for organic colour, to express experience and knowledge. Restricted his colour, and began to consciously consider getting away from all props. Contemporary Art Society show: Figure in a Setting included the first Antique Room painting.
1953
Retrospective touring show in the north of England.
1953 - 57
Seeks to construct a poetic space within a strictly figurative representational subject matter. Uses his linear gift to explore space, rather than to detail or describe a form. Frequent contact with Ceri Richards and Francis Bacon.
1958
Left the Slade School and went to LCC Camberwell School of Art and Crafts as head of department of painting and sculpture. Exhibited a collection of pictures at the Royal West of England Academy at Bristol with Keith Vaughan and Ruskin Spear.
1960
Exhibition at the Leicester Galleries.
1963
First retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery, London. Exhibition curated by Bryan Robertson. Catalogue essay by John Berger.
1965
Medley retired from Camberwell Art School..
1978
Exhibited at the Artists' Market in Earlham Street, Covent Garden. The works were a trial run of sixteen large-format screenprints illustrating the poem Samson Agonistes, and specimen pages of a projected book.
1980
Published the book in a limited edition with twenty-four screen-printed images corresponding to passages in the text. Regarded by Medley as one of his greatest achievements. The making of the Samson illustrations directed Medley once again towards representation. After their publication he returned to painting the figure, and to the looser, more expressive handling that characterized his work in the early sixties.
1994
Won the Charles Woolaston Prize, awarded for Preparation for the Execution, the most distinguished work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Died 20th October 1994.
Exhibtions
2007
Robert Medley; After the Old Masters, James Hyman Gallery, London
A Tribute to Sir Coln St John Wilson, James Hyman Gallery, London
2006
New Directions; Painting and Drawings of Michael Drawings, Peter de Francia, Derrick Greaves and Robert Medley, James Hyman Gallery, 2006
Portraits, James Hyman Gallery, London
Home and Away, James Hyman Gallery, London
2005-2006
Robert Medley; A Centenary Tribute, James Hyman Gallery, London
2005
Fifty Years of British Lanscape Painting, James Hyman Gallery, London
1994
Robert Medley, Coram Gallery, London
1984
Robert Medley; Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1978
Robert Medley, Artists' Market in Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London
1972
Robert Medley, Lisson Gallery, London
1963
Robert Medley; Retrospective, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1960
Robert Medley, Leicester Galleries
1931
Robert Medley, Cooling Galleries, London (first one-man show)
1927
Young Artists Show, London, organised by the Sunday Express, (exhibited first painting)