Marie Walker Last and the New Vision Group

Marie Walker Last (1917-2017) was an early exponent of abstract and avant-garde art in Britain and part of the New Vision Centre Group, a collective of like-minded young artists. A selection of 35 works by Marie Walker Last and the New Vision Centre Group from Walker Last’s personal collection will be exhibited prior to their sale in Tennants’ Auctioneers Modern & Contemporary Art Sale on 29^th February.

Marie Walker Last was born in West Yorkshire. Whilst her early artistic inclinations lent towards capturing the landscape of her home, in the mid-1950s she moved to London and became captivated by the avant-garde art scene. Her work moved beyond representational depictions of landscape towards to more personal expressions of her surroundings as she began painting in an abstract expressionist manner. By 1959 Walker Last had become involved with the New Vision Centre Gallery, which had been set up by Denis Bowen, Halima Nalecz and Frank Avray Wilson; devoted to non-figurative art, it promoted the work of young abstract and avant-garde artists - showing work at several of the gallery exhibitions and culminating with a solo exhibition in 1961.

After her marriage, Walker Last moved to Ilkley, where she established her studio and lived until her death in 2017. Exhibiting both locally and nationally, her first major retrospective was held at Dean Clough Gallery in Halifax in 1991. Throughout her long career, Walker Last experimented widely with different movements and styles, but her diverse work is unified by a common emotional response to the landscape around her.

Alongside the works of Marie Walker Last, the exhibition and sale will include paintings by Denis Bowen, Aubrey Williams and the Canadian Artist William J B Newcombe.

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