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Allan Milner
(1910 - 1984)
Composition 2, 1949
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Allan Milner (1910 - 1984)
Signed and inscribed L32
Oil on board, 19 11/16 x 24 5/8 in. (50 x 62.5 cm.)
Size:
Height – 50cm
Width – 62.5cm
Milner studied at Leeds College of Art and
then the Royal College of Art. He exhibited in mixed
exhibitions at the Mayor Gallery (1932), Redfern Gallery and Gimpel Fils and had solo shows
including E.L.T.Mesens’ London Gallery in 1949 and Woodstock in 1967.
Salford Art Gallery bought an oil, Abstraction, in 1956. Milner settled
in Ramsey, Isle of Mann where he was the founder member and became
vice-president of the Mannin Art Group where he was a prolific
exhibitor. The artist was described by one friend
as a stout bohemian fellow, competent with brush and corkscrew.
His abstract compositions show him to have been a technically
brilliant artist with a highly developed sense of form and colour which,
on account of his remarkably distinctive and consistent vision, deserves greater recognition.
This
composition, dating to the late 1960’s, is from the period that Milner
showed at the Woodstock Gallery is London. The numbers that appear
alongside Milner’s signature are actually the titles of his pictures
which were classified by a series of numbers, often prefixed by a
letter.
We are grateful to Conor Mullan for assistance.
Milner was an Abstract and Surrealist painter, born in
Castleford, Yorkshire. He attended the local Grammar School, where his
Art teacher also taught Henry Moore. He went to Leeds College of Art and
then the Royal College of Art. He exhibited in 1932 at the Mayor
Gallery, having a portrait bought by the artist Edward Wadsworth. In the
Second World War he served in the Royal Navy. He exhibited in mixed
exhibitions at the Redfern Gallery and Gimpel Fils and had solo shows
including E.L.T.Mesens’ London Gallery in 1949 and Woodstock in 1967.
Salford Art Gallery bought an oil, Abstraction, in 1956. Milner settled
in Ramsey, Isle of Mann where he was the founder member and became
vice-president of the Mannin Art Group where he was a prolific
exhibitor. The Manx Museum, in Douglas, holds an abstract water colour
and a Manx landscape by Milner. The artist was described by one friend
as a stout bohemian fellow, competent with brush and corkscrew
