Sheila Girling

Sheila Girling
Moon Song, 2013
Signed and dated 'Sheila Girling 2013'
Handmade paper and acrylic
46 x 31 cm
18 x 12 in.

“Her paintings are modest and ambitious, authentic and imaginative, but above all they are true to the sensual delight she originally discovered as a young girl, when her grandfather decided she should carry on the family’s artist mantle. They are, first and foremost, about the joy of painting.”

 – Sue Hubbard, catalogue essay for Sheila Girling Retrospective, IVAM Museum, 26 April – 11 June 2006.

Known for her large abstract paintings, Sheila Girling used collage, painting and clay to create vibrant, energetic works that are bursting with movement, energy and colour.

Born in Birmingham in 1924, Sheila Girling studied at Birmingham School of Art from 1941, before attending the Royal Academy Schools, London in 1947 through a scholarship. In 1949, she married fellow student and sculptor Anthony Caro. Together they lived and worked in London.

Her creative output boomed from the 1980’s onwards, as she increasingly incorporated cut, torn and pasted papers onto her canvases. By laying her canvases out on the floor of her studio in Camden Town, she was able to pour paint over them, mopping colour washes and gel in multiple layers. Girling used her strong sense of texture and material to explore the possibilities of image making and the relationships of colour, shape and composition.

Sheila Girling’s practice was heavily influenced by her frequent visits to North America in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Whilst briefly living in Vermont, she developed close relationships with Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler, which had a particularly profound impact on her work.

From her first solo exhibition in 1978, Sheila Girling exhibited extensively throughout Europe and North America, with notable solo exhibitions at the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Spain; Frances Graham Dixon Gallery, London and Warwick Arts Trust, London. In the late 20th century, she was represented by Acquavella Galleries in New York, who specialised in French Impressionists as well as artists such as Lucian Freud, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and her husband, Anthony Caro. In 1982, Girling and Caro established the Triangle Artist Workshop alongside curator Terry Fenton and philanthropist Robert Loder. Their aim was to connect abstract sculptors and painters across the world.

Sheila Girling’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, including but not limited to Museum Würth, Kunzelsau, Germany; The Royal Collection Trust, Windsor Castle, London; Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada; IVAM Museum, Valencia, Spain and Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, USA. Today, her work continues to be celebrated. Recent exhibitions include Sheila Girling: Colour and Collage, Clifford Chance, London (2023); Anthony Caro & Sheila Girling: A 64 Year Conversation About Art, Peterborough Museum City Art Gallery (2018) and a major retrospective at Annely Juda Fine Art, London (2015).