Lemon and white spring '63

Terry Frost was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He left school aged 14 and worked in a cycle shop and a factory, before serving in the military during the Second World War. It was at a prisoner-of-war camp that he was encouraged to paint by a fellow prisoner. In 1946 Frost moved to Cornwall, where he briefly studied at the St Ives School of Painting, before attending Camberwell School of Art. In the 1950s he taught at Leeds but returned to Cornwall, where he was inspired by the light and colour.

Frost was a leading exponent of abstract art and a recognised figure of the British art establishment. In this work of 1963, his juxtaposition of colourful shapes, often based on a circle or semicircle, is reminiscent of boats gently rocking in the waters of St Ives harbour.

Purchased with assistance from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, 1969