Mulberry Gallery
QUALITY WORKS OF ART FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
View works by the following artists:
Jack Millar, RBA, NEAC (1921 – 2006)
It is not surprising that through his long life as a painter Jack Millar gained many prizes & was highly esteemed by his peers. From 1948 he was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Over the years he also contributed to several dozen other mixed shows in commercial and public galleries, as well as having a string of solo exhibitions.
The last of these, at Duncan Campbell Fine Art in 2003, indicated that Millar, then in his early 80’s, was an artist still capable of producing his favourite interiors, as well as landscapes, soaked in sunlight and rich colour. The French artist Pierre Bonnard was the painter he especially admired, but a comparison with the Scottish Colourists would not have been out of place.
Of that show, the Royal Academician Ken Howard wrote: “Revelation is the key to all painting. Showing us a way to see. In Jack’s case this is not shocking or confrontational, it is quiet and convincing and it adds to our perception of the world.”
Jack Millar was born in London in 1921, the son of Ernest Woodroffe de Cauze Millar, a scenic artist who, prior to his early death, worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Before the Second World War, Jack became a student at Clapham Art School. When the school was evacuated during the war, Jack disliked his new Midlands location and decided to return to London. He enrolled at St Martin’s School of Art until he joined the Royal Artillery, the after the war he continued his studies at the Royal College of Art, where he was taught by Rodrigo Moynihan, John Minton & Carel Weight.
Carel Weight remained a great help and influence. After a failed marriage, Millar
in 1969 married the painter Pamela Izzard. Weight’s present to them was his own drolly
titled work “The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden”. Like many artists, Millar had
to teach as well as paint, and many students benefited from his guidance as a visiting
lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools from 1964 to 1992, and also as head of fine
art at Walthamstow School of Art, 1966-
Millar was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1954, and of the New English Art Club in 2001. He also showed with the London Group and out of London with the Royal West of England Academy and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art.
Jack Millar died on 2nd November 2006 in London, and more information on his life may be found in his obituary by Fred Cuming RA, published in The Independent.
Mulberry Gallery Email: randssansom@aol.com
Jack Millar (1921 – 2006)
“Ribblehead, Yorkshire”
41cm x 51cm
Oil on board
£850
Jack Millar (1921 – 2006)
“The Dining Room”
76cm x 63cm
Oil on canvas
£1750