Gerald Moore: The Studio Sale - An Exceptional Array of Work from the Last Six Decades - Summers Place 18 May - Bellmans 1- 23 May

Dr Gerald Moore was a polymath, who ran a medical empire, a Safari Park and a Motor Museum, while also painting, sculpting and writing novels, children's books and poetry. Born in 1926, he spent his life in London, Kent, Sussex and retired to Devon where he died in 2018 at the age of 91. His collection of his own art and sculptures will now be sold at Summers Place Auctions on 18th May 2021 and the remainder of his art collection will have its own timed auction at Bellmans, starting in early May until the 23rd May, with furniture from his estate included in Bellmans' regular furniture auction on 26th May 2021. The sales include over 180 works by Gerry Moore and approximately 80 further lots.

Gerry moved to Devon and upon the death of his first wife Irene, sold the contents of Heathfield Park and its Motor Museum at Sotheby's in 1993, with the BBC filming a documentary of the sale. Summers Place Auctions' director James Rylands and Dendy Easton, former director of Sotheby's Sussex and Antiques Roadshow expert, were both involved in the last sale and remember Gerry well. James said: "Despite his diminutive physical stature he more than compensated with his larger-than-life personality and passion for art. We are naturally delighted to be involved in organising an auction on behalf of his family nearly 30 years after the original Sotheby's sale."

Gerry described his style as expressive experimentalism, he decided early on that he wanted to stay figurative and he deconstructed images in his own fashion. Early life circumstances were depressing, but they strengthened him and he was striving to achieve, and with it came a lifelong compulsion to paint. His works can be deeply disturbing or poignantly reflective and melancholic as well as projecting humour, both absurd and touchingly. He took inspiration from daily life and one of his first themes was the Teddy-boy cult in the late 1950s. He was inspired by many British artists, in particular Francis Bacon, Ruskin Spear and Jacob Epstein, but it was in the late 1950s that a meeting with the 'Australians', among them Arthur Boyd, took him where he wanted to be. Their art was believably figurative but like nothing he'd previously seen - dynamic, powerful and disturbing.

Summers Place Auctions will be selling Gerry Moore's paintings and sculptures in addition to some works by other artists and some garden statuary. Among the highlights are 38 paintings by Moore dating from 1960 to 2001 and covering all the decades in-between. Estimates start from £100 onwards. The 42 sculptures by him carry estimates from as little as £200 going up to £10,000. Works by other artists include a chalk & crayon drawing by Arthur Boyd, estimated at £200-400, some works by Rupert Gatfield (estimates from £500-1,000) and David Shanahan (£500-1,200).

Bellmans will be selling in excess of 100 further works by Gerald Moore in a timed auction, Gerald Moore: The Studio Sale. Bidding is through thesaleroom.com, opening 1st May and ending 23rd May.