Cecil Collins (artist)

From 1951 to 1975 he taught at the Central School of Art. Later, one of his pupils was Ginger Gilmour. Collins' style in centered around pagan and early christian imagery in many of his works. The figure of the fool was an important one as well in his vision of the world and art (especially in his essay collection The Vision of the Fool), describing it as "an idealistic figure" pushing back against the "mechanic jungle of the contemporary world", representing "the poetic imagination of life, as inexplicable as the essence of life itself". Collins was awarded an MBE in June 1979. A retrospective exhibition of his prints was held at the Tate Gallery in 1981. A retrospective of his paintings took place (before Collins died) in 1989. He was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery. ==Exhibitions==

• 1935 − Bloomsbury Gallery, London, England • 1936 − International Surrealist Exhibition − New Burlington Galleries, London, England • 1942 − Toledo Museum of Fine Art, US • 1948 − New Paintings by Cecil Collins − Lefevre Gallery, London, England • 1950 − New Paintings − Heffer Gallery, Cambridge, England • 1951 − Leicester Galleries • 1953 − Society of Mural Painters • 1953 − Ashmolean Museum, Oxford • 1954 − Arts Council, London • 1956 − Leicester Galleries • 1959 − Whitechapel Gallery, London • 1961 − Gallery Zygos, Athens, Greece • 1964 − Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh, US • 1965 − Arthur Tooth & Sons • 1967 − Crane Kalman Gallery • 1971 − ''Britain's Contribution to Surrealism'' − Hamet Gallery, London, England • 1972 − Retrospective Exhibition. Drawings, Paintings, Watercolours, Gouaches and Paintings 1936−1968 • 1981 − New Works − Anthony d'Offay, London, England • 1981 − The Prints of Cecil Collins − Tate Gallery, London, England • 1983 − Plymouth Arts Centre • 1984 − Festival Gallery, Aldeburgh • 1988 − Recent Paintings − Anthony d'Offay, London, England • 1989 − Tate Gallery, London ==Bibliography==