Frank Sydney Spears

Who was Frank Sydney Spears?

Frank Sydney Spears was a South African artist. He was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England.

He arrived in South Africa as a designer for Brimble and Briggs Ltd. in 1928. He established a high profile as an artist, broadcaster and actor, also known for his success in business activities and as a designer of boats.

His early painting style was impressionistic, and his work was referred to, along with that of Sydney Carter, as "staid, stuffy and provincial". He was elected President of the South African Society of Artists in 1945 after first joining in 1934. In 1949, he travelled in the USA, and his style changed in response to the growing orthodoxy of abstraction there. In the 1950s he began to experiment with non-figuration, but was unable to relinquish his attachment to figurative elements. A personal mysticism began to shape much of his thought and he became interested in the relationship of painting, poetry and music.

This was well received by critics bored by the conservatism of SASA exhibitions in the 1940s.