ENERGY, NATURE, VIBRATION Leonard McComb RA (1930-2018)
Dates: 15th February â 3rd August 2025Â
Oriel MĂ´n to showcase Leonard McComb RA’s first retrospective in 40 years Â
This British Master, Leonard McComb RA’s first retrospective in more than 40 years opens on 15th February at Oriel MĂ´n Art Gallery and Museum in Anglesey, featuring a collection of his most famous works from world renowned galleries including the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate and Manchester Art Gallery.Â
Inspired by Van Gogh and Cezanne, McComb’s holistic belief that everything is connected by energy and vibration resonates with today’s environmentally aware audiences and is the focus of the artist’s posthumous exhibition that spans 50 years of his work.
While McComb earned the majority of his success in London, it was Anglesey, off the North coast of Wales that profoundly influenced his work. He regularly visited when his mother relocated from Manchester in the 1970s, providing the artist a place to observe nature away from urban Brixton, the location of his home and studio.
Highlights of the new exhibition, which runs until August, include:
- ‘Rock and Sea Anglesey, 1983′, a monumental 10m x 3m drawing of the cliffs at nearby Benllech Beach. One of the largest drawings in any public collection, it won the Hugh Casson Prize for Drawing in 2005 at the Royal Academy Summer Show, some 20 years after its creation.
- The artist’s most renowned sculpture ⠑Portrait of a Young Man Standing‘ a life-sized bronze cast of a man with an open hand and clenched fist that took 20 years to complete and was inspired by the artist’s concern over the conflicts of the 1960s such as the Cold War and Vietnam War.
- McComb’s iconic large-scale watercolour works that defined his career in the 70s and 80s including the study Woman by a Window, 1980 which depicts a seated nude staring out of a window in an urban setting and dismisses any notion of the ‘Romantic nude’, and Garden Trees South London, constructed from thousands of delicate, almost inseparable lines.
- The oil paintings that demonstrate his exceptional qualities as a portrait painter such as Nobel Prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing, 1999 (National Portrait Gallery Collection) an activist and campaigner against nuclear arms, and perhaps the artist’s greatest portrait â that of his mother, sitting calmly holding a cup of tea, in Anglesey.
Leonard McComb (1930â2018) grew up in the working-class neighbourhoods of Moss Side and Wythenshawe, where his fatherâa signwriter and amateur painterâfirst introduced him to art. After national service, he studied at Manchester School of Art, meeting influential figures like L.S. Lowry, and later won a scholarship to the Slade School of Fine Art. McComb’s career flourished, with his work showcased in landmark exhibitions such as the R.B. Kitaj-curated Human Clay (1976) and the Venice Biennale (1980).
Beyond his success as a painter and sculptor, McComb co-founded Sunningwell Art School in 1973, championed life drawing at Goldsmiths, and served as Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools (1995â1998). Renowned for his empathy and holistic teaching, he left a profound impact on students and peers alike. Deeply inspired by nature and Anglesey, McComb’s work bridges traditional observation with a modern belief in the interconnectedness of humanity and the natural world.
For more details visit www.leonardmccomb.co.ukÂ
leonardmccombra@gmail.com
Energy, Nature, Vibration – Leonard McComb RA (1930-2018)
Dates:Â 15 Februaryâ3 August 2025
Oriel MĂ´n, Anglesey, WalesÂ
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