Theodore Mendez

Who is Theodore Mendez?

Theodore Mendez 1934-1997 was an abstract artist who taught at Camberwell College of Arts in London for over thirty years. After attending Strand School, he entered Camberwell College of Arts in 1950 as a student, where his contemporaries included Terry Frost, Howard Hodgkin, Euan Uglow, Roy Turner Durrant, Bernard Dunstan and Gillian Ayres. He returned as a teacher; and from 1976-1984 was head of the Textile Department.

Writing about his work in 1990, he confided, " My recent work is no way representational or literal...The works are sometimes symbolic of a moment in time - an event or place witnessed, felt or experienced.. The work I do is made up - invented - stimulated by life-enhancing experience... Each work has ultimately to stand by itself without necessarily being part of a series or having a title or clue as to its origin... I love the variety of the medium, the spreading of colour and the interrelation of colour and colour areas... sometimes the work comes almost directly via music, which I listen to constantly - several hours every day - like food and drink, it is essential... if I achieve anything at all, it has, for me, to satisfy [a need for] lasting contemplation - mystical, intangible.."