Mark Gertler - Report from Europe - exhibit Mark Gertler: A New Perspective - Brief Article

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2002 by Miriam Kramer

Mark Gertler was born in East London in 1891, the son of Jewish Austro-Polish immigrants. He showed early promise as an artist and enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1908, where he was a contemporary of the painter and draftsman Stanley Spencer Gertler won several major prizes and scholarships while at the Slade, and there met the friends, particularly Dora Carrington, who were to have a profound influence on him.

In 1914 Gertler met Lady Ottoline Morrell and became part of her literary and artistic set at Garsington. He was a conscientious objector during World War I, and one of his best-known paintings, Merry-Go-Round (Tate Britain, London), was painted in 1916 as a reaction to the honors of that conflict. Gertler was in love with Carrington, but eventually they married others. Ill health, financial worries, and emotional turmoil led to Gertler's suicide in 1939.

Despite poor physical and mental health, Gertler's artistic career was successful. He was a member of the New English Art Club and the London Group, and exhibited regularly at the Goupil Gallery and the Leicester Galleries. His still lifes and portraits, especially those of his family and of rabbis, were particularly well-regarded.

A retrospective exhibition of his work entitled Mark Gertler: A New Perspective is on view until December 1 at the Ben Uri Gallery--The London Jewish Museum of Art. The curators are Sarah MacDougall and Rachel Dickson, both of whom also wrote the accompanying catalogue, which may be ordered by telephoning 44-20-7604-3991. The exhibition coincides with a biography of Gertler written by MacDougall and published by John Murray Publishers in London, who may be telephoned at 44-1476-541080.