Philip Meyer Paintings

About

Variety is the spice of life, somebody nameless once sagely pronounced. And that
somebody might quite easily have been Philip Meyer ' who, for two weeks in May
(13th-25th), will be located at The Framers Gallery in London's Fitzrovia, showing
four dozen paintings that amply demonstrate that oft-quoted aphorism.
With every fresh work, he continues his relentless pursuit of the new. Sometimes swiftly
thrilling, other times painstakingly concentrated, his aim is always to experiment and explore
what might happen next, and see what can be discovered in 'controlled accidents'. Generally,
he reveals little in the way of explanations; the art, he says, speaks
for itself.
Born in Manhattan, in 1923, his passion for paint came early in life,
veering towards graphic design as a possible career, while training
at New York's renowned Cooper Union College of Art, The New
School for Design, and Columbia University. After several years as
a successful art director in leading New York advertising agencies,
he chose to spread his wings and speculatively visited London. In
1964, he decided to settle here permanently, building up a specialist art studio, which served
most of the capital's leading creative agencies and thrived.
Throughout, however, he kept on painting ' not with a view to exhibiting or selling, although
he was wont casually to give a friend or family member a much-admired work as a gift, always
firmly refusing payment. That, he would insist, was not the point.
Not until 1988 was he dubiously persuaded to put on his first one-man show in Highgate,
London. It would be almost 20 years before he exhibited again ' twice in Suffolk in 2004 and
2008. Admired for their originality and command of colour, his paintings are in many
private collections in the UK, USA, the West Indies, France, Greece, Spain, and South Africa.
And now, in his ninetieth year, the scene is set for another show ' in the vibrant heart of
Fitzrovian elegance ' with the extraordinary variety that this artist has produced. If variety is
indeed the spice of life, there is surely a wealth of excitement here.