Successful painter, teacher and Royal Academician - son of Spencer Frederick Gore
Frederick Gore never knew his father, the painter Spencer Gore, a leading member of the Camden Group, who died in 1914 only a few months after Frederick's birth in Richmond, Surrey, but he revered his memory and for many years was a guardian of his reputation. Frederick Gore, sometimes patrician and slightly raffish, with a love of street scenes and popular entertainments, was himself rather like a Camden Town artist. Some people think that his style became more akin to his father's as he grew older.
In 1946, he began teaching at Saint Martin's School of Art, where he was Head of Painting Department from 1951 until 1979, during which time he expanded the facilities, conducted memorable battles with the renowned sculpture department and employed a succession of unconventional tutors, chief among them Gillian Ayres and Henry Mundy. In fact, his career at St Martin's coincided with the anarchic golden age of British art schools. He tolerated eccentricity and believed that "the pedantic side of art schools is an appalling thing". His students and colleagues there included many of the most accomplished artists of the twentieth century, who continue to acknowledge the encouragement they received from Gore.
Outside of art school, summer months were spent painting en plein-air: on the Greek islands of Paros (1950s) and later on Aegina. Then during the 1960s, the rich hinterland of Majorca, followed by the brilliantly-lit landscapes of Provence.
Exhibitions
Redfern Gallery (five one-man shows 1949-62)
Mayor Gallery (two one-man shows)
Juster Gallery, New York (one-man show)
Contemporary Art Society Exhibitions, Tate Gallery (1954, 1956, 1958)
Work in Public Collections
Southampton Art Gallery
Plymouth Art Gallery
Beaverbrook Foundation, New Brunswick
Department of the Environment
Contemporary Art Society
Rutherston Collection, Doncaster
Reading Art Galleries
Leicestershire County Council
