CYRIL MOUNT

Phoenix Studios, Wellesley House
Wellington Place Brighton BN2 9NB
studio: 078 12 21 41 36

Cyril Mount, born 1920, was in India at the outbreak of WWII. He spent most of the war years as artillery officer in the Middle East, N. Africa, Sicily, France & Germany. He made many drawings and gouaches in lulls between fighting, 39 of these are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum, London. After the war he became an art student 1946-1950 followed by full time teaching for 35 years mainly in higher education.

As a student Mount was attracted to painters such as Breugel, Goya, Hogarth, Daumier and Picasso. They still have a place in his oeuvre after well over half a century. So not surprisingly, his work has always been concerned with people, in portraits or in exploring the dynamics of groups with light and movement whether on beaches, carnivals or in the psychedelic atmosphere of raves and discos. He frequently tends to politicise his art, even his most innocent paintings of bathers or ravers, can have as much hidden cynicism as his more overt blasts against the hypocrisy, cruelty and injustices of the 'systems' in the present world. Mount has done his share of exhibiting but has never been overly concerned about engaging in the 'fame and fortune' aspects of the art game.

As he gets older he increasingly resents time taken away from painting although he reckons he's had more than his statutory 15mins of notoriety. With various commissions including a ceiling panel and crucifixion installed in St Peters Italian Church Clerkenwell 1975 and in 1992 a commissioned painting of the Ruweisat Ridge, El Alamein battle in July 1942 installed on permanent display in the Imperial War museum 1992 to commemorate the 50th anniversary.

Amongst other contemporary artists he admires the anarchic Ralph Steadman who pulls no punches, and whose recent quip "I don't do decoration, my line is moral indignation" touches many a raw nerve in the current art scene.

Website: www.cyrilmount.net

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