Richard Vicary; artist & teacher
Hyfler/Rosner
September 23, 2006, Saturday
http://www.rwa.org.uk/rvicary.htm
Richard Vicary, artist and teacher, was born on July 8,
1918. He died on August 8, 2006, aged 88.
Painter, art teacher and print-maker fascinated by
human-influenced landscapes
RICHARD VICARY was a distinguished artist and teacher who
moved from painting landscapes to concentrate print-making,
in which discipline he achieved considerable recognition.
His vivid prints were strongly influenced by postwar
painting in France and England; he was drawn to the Romantic
overtones of that period. As a full-time teacher until early
retirement and during his later summer schools, Vicary was a
huge inspiration to his students.
Richard Henry Vicary was born in 1918 in Sutton, Surrey. The
son of a novelist and a suffragette, Vicary studied at
Tunbridge Wells School of Art and then at the Medway School
of Art in Maidstone, where he stayed until the outbreak of
the war in 1939. During the Blitz he was called up to help
to generate smoke screens over the Thames.
After the war he resumed his studies, first at the Brighton
School of Art and then at the Kodak Photographic School.
Subsequently, he taught at the Tiffin School at Kingston
upon Thames and then part-time at Epsom and Ewell School of
Art.
A large part of Vicary's teaching career was spent as head
of graphics and printmaking at Shrewsbury School of Art
until 1972, when he took early retirement because of ill
health. Thereafter he continued to teach summer schools at
Henllan Mill near Welshpool.
Landscapes that showed evidence of man's activity, such as
quarries, were his favoured subject matter. Working ships
were also a source of interest. In 1961, after the death of
his first wife, Jean, Vicary placed a greater emphasis on
printmaking, although he did occasionally choose to use
pastels or watercolours.
His choice of subject matter and influences combined to form
striking, optimistic and vivid lithographs.
Vicary's special interest in lithography led him to write
The Manual in Lithography (1976) and The Advanced Manual in
Lithography (1977). He also created the linocut
illustrations for the children's book The Ivy Garland
(1982).
Vicary was a professional member of the Artists
International Association until its dissolution in 1954.
Then, in 1974, he was elected to the Royal Society of
Painter-Etchers and Engravers (RE) and to the Royal West of
England Academy (RWA) in 1989. He was a regular exhibitor at
Bankside Gallery, the home of the RE, and was a regular
exhibitor at the RWA from 1962.
Vicary exhibited extensively all over the world, from
Birmingham to Leningrad. In the 1950s he exhibited at the
Whitechapel Art Gallery with the Artists International
Association. Other significant venues included the Oriel
Gallery, Newtown, the Gateway Gallery, Shrewsbury, and the
Bohun Gallery in Henley-on-Thames.
Vicary benefited from the vogue for postwar art. His work
was shown in the British Printmakers Revisited exhibition at
Bankside Gallery, alongside images by Richard Beer, Allin
Braund, Geoffrey Elliott, Trevor Kemp and Robert Tavener.
Vicary's prints are widely collected and have been bought by
numerous education authorities, among them Bath University
and St Thomas' Hospital, and many private collectors.
Commissions for his work included producing poster poems for
West Midland Arts and the Housman Society.
He is survived by his second wife, Deirdre, two sons from
his first marriage and a son and daughter from his second.