Provenance
Private collection
Note: Vera Spencer exhibited at, and contributed to, many of the most forward thinking and groundbreaking exhibitions of the early 1950s and was allied with many of the emerging groups of the time including the Constructivist Group, the Independent Group and the Modern Movement.
She was one of the new and progressive abstract painters, a term that virtually became synonymous with modern, which included the likes of Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, Victor Pasmore, Peter Lanyon and Terry Frost. She exhibited in Abstract Paintings, Sculptures and Mobiles, the very first post-war exhibition devoted to non-figurative art (organised by the artist Adrian Heath) at the AIA (Artists International Association) Galleries in London in May 1951. In the summer of 1951 this loosely defined group received their first critical recognition in an article by Toni del Renzio in Typographica, the journal edited by the designer Herbert Spencer.
Following the 1953 3rd Weekend Exhibition (held at Adrian Heath's studio at 22 Fitzroy Street) - where Spencer exhibited alongside Terence Conran, Roger Hilton, Eduardo Paolozzi and William Scott; Toni del Renzio's review observed that Spencer 'dominates the exhibition with her efficient and wholly charming collage.'