Dorothy Mead

British 1928 – 1975

It is said that Dorothy Mead once mused that were she to change her name to George she would find it much easier to sell her work. (George being the name of her father.)

What little is known of Mead is that she was born in London in 1928, and studied at Dagenham School of Art, where she was taught by David Bomberg. She then followed Bomberg to the City Literary Institute and later to Borough Polytechnic, where she studied with him between 1945 and 1951. In her teens, Mead became a founding member of the Borough Group, of which the group’s style is characterised by their angular, expressionist landscapes and dense brushwork. In the late 1950s she became a mature student at the Slade School of Fine Art. Rumour has it that whilst at the Slade Mead refused on principle to take the compulsory perspective exam, on the grounds that it was irrelevant for her work, and consequently never actually graduated. Regardless, Mead was able to fashion a career as a professional artist supported by teaching at Morley College, Chelsea College of Art and Goldsmiths.

Annette Kuhn FBA wrote about the artist for The British Academy: “She was active just a little too early, however, to ride the wave of the radical and feminist art activism and criticism of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and one can only speculate about the difference a longer life might have made to her development and reputation as an artist.”

She enjoyed some critical success as well, such as showing alongside David Hockney and Bridget Riley in the Arts Council’s 1964 touring exhibition Six Young Painters. Documented paintings by Mead number over a hundred, including a number in public art collections. The first ever solo show of her work took place at the Boundary Gallery in 2005, with further solo exhibitions at Borough Road Gallery in 2013 and at Waterhouse and Dodd (by whom she is now represented) in 2014. Four of Mead’s paintings are included in the British Academy collection.