Mary Newcomb : paintings and drawings

Mary Newcomb was a British painter born in Harrow-on-the-hill, England, 1922. She studied at Reading University for a degree in Natural Sciences in 1943 and went on to teach science and mathematics in Somerset, before moving to Norfolk in 1950. Here, Newcomb started painting and became a member of the Norfolk and Norwich Art Circle. 

Newcomb’s first solo show was held at Crane Kalman Gallery in 1970 and the gallery has regularly held exhibitions of her work since. It was in association with the gallery that Christopher Andreae wrote a monograph on her work in 1996 to coincide with her retrospective that travelled to Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria; Schoolhouse Gallery, Bath; King’s Lynn Art Centre, Norfolk; and Crane Kalman Gallery, London.

Newcomb exhibited internationally at Galerie de Beerenburght, Eck on Wiel, Holland and Galerie Kusten, Gothenburg, Sweden in 1976; in Amsterdam at Galerie de Beerenburght, 1977, and Galerie Nanky de Vreeze, 1984; Galerie XX, Hamburg and Graham Modern Gallery, New York, both in 1985.

Newcomb’s works remain part of many public gallery collections, including, since 1997, the Tate gallery, when her work was acquired for its collection; The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art, London; Norfolk Museums, Norwich; Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich; Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham, Nottingham; Northampton Museums and Art Gallery, Northampton; Ipswich Art Gallery, Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Suffolk; Pembroke College Oxford, JCR Art Collection, Oxford and Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Scotland.

In 2009 Mary Newcomb’s Odd Universe, A Memorial Exhibition, was held at Norwich Castle       Museum and Art Gallery, and Crane Kalman Gallery. Most recently, in 2021, the gallery presented an exhibition of her works in Mary Newcomb, Nature’s Canvas, alongside Compton Verney Art Gallery in Warwickshire where a large retrospective of Newcomb’s work was held.