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Jeffrey Steele 1931-2021

Jeffrey Steele is particularly known for mathematical monochrome works. He was born in Cardiff, Wales and studied at Cardiff University and Newport School of Art, Media and Design. He painted his first colour Systems painting in 1949 and by 1950 had completely abandoned figurative painting and adopted a more abstract style

By 1960 he had developed a more optical style which evolved whilst working in Paris on a French government scholarship. Following this he was included in the 1965 exhibition The Responsive Eye at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Steele devised a set of rules for his paintings of the 1960s. It was a precise approach but despite this his working practice lost none of its intuitive nature – each work still had its own system. He was a contemporary of the Op Artists, but he maintained that the optical effects achieved in his works were not the intention but merely the result of the mathematical and logical systems he applied to the works, which aimed to challenge the viewers mind, both mentally and aesthetically.

Steele attended the Barry Summer School in Wales at which Kenneth and Mary Martin taught and around this time also co-founded the Systems Group with Malcolm Hughes in 1969. He became a teacher at Plymouth Polytechnic and his first one man show was held at Grabowski Gallery, London. His work has been exhibited in many of the Systems group exhibitions including at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London. He currently lives and works in Portsmouth.... read more