Penwith Gallery Exhibition 11th April to 10th May 2025
Tom Cross was well known as a painter, educator, and writer.
He was a member of the Penwith Society of Artists and later became its
chairman. It is only fitting for this
major retrospective exhibition to be held at the Penwith Gallery where he
exhibited many times. The collection is now owned and managed by his son David
and daughter-in-law, Carol who have collated the extensive collection and
through this research have been rewarded by discovering the unique
ever-changing style of his work over 60 years including many works that have
never been seen for decades.
This exhibition hopes to illustrate a journey of his work
from the early days of Manchester and the Slade, his friendship with LS Lowry
through to the abstract years in Italy, Wales, and Reading and then back to
realism in Cornwall and travels abroad.
Tom was first and foremost an artist and regularly
exhibited his work after graduating from the Slade in the mid 1950's. He held several
educational positions culminating in the Principal of Falmouth School of Art
1976-87. In later life he wrote a number of books, one of his most important being
“Painting the Warmth of The Sun - St Ives Artists 1939-1975”, first published
in 1984 and later televised, a book about the St Ives Modernist period that
helped prepare the ground for the founding of the Tate Gallery in St Ives which
opened in 1993. He lived and painted in Cornwall on the Helford River for over
30 years with his wife Patricia.
Tom was a prestigious note taker and the many sketch books
and a number of important paintings have been gifted to Falmouth University which
are on display in the campus and the Tom Cross Archives now continue his
educational legacy.
David and Carol continue to promote his work. “We hope the range and depth of this
exhibition will surprise and delight. We are hugely thankful to the Penwith
Gallery to exhibit a small part of Tom’s extensive collection and to celebrate
a life of art from a Different Perspective.”
