SVEN BERLIN (BRITISH, 1911 - 1999)
Sven Berlin, born in Sydenham, London on 14th September 1911, was an English painter, draughtman and writer. He was a key player in the development of the St. Ives art movement. Having studied at the Beckenham School of Art and after a successful career as an adagio dancer in the music-halls he moved to Cornwall with his first wife Helga in 1938 to study at the Camborne-Redruth School of Art, pre-dating the arrival of Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholsen to Cornwall. As WW2 broke out, Berlin initially remained a conscientious objector. He worked in the market garden established by the art critic Adrian Stokes outside St Ives. Here he met Nicholson, Hepworth and Peter Lanyon. These artists would later establish the Modernist movement. During this time, he penned the biography for Alfred Wallis, the first profile to be written on the artist, published in 1949 and still in print today. Berlin did eventually join the Army, taking part in the D-Day landings. Returning to St Ives after a breakdown, Berlin divorced Helga and met his second wide Juanita Fisher in 1949. Berlin set up his new studio in ‘The Tower’ next to Porthwidden Beach, and began carving stone sculptures outside, including the Mermaid and Angel in 1948, and The Lion which was commissioned for the St. Austell Brewery. Berlin frequently exhibited paintings, drawings, and sculptures with the St. Ives Society of Artists. In London, Berlin was a founding member of the Crypt Group along with Peter Lanyon and John Wells, also members of the St Ives artistic group. A flamboyant and outspoken personality, Berlin did not get on well with many of his peers. Following a conflict between the St. Ives Society of Artists, the Crypt Group and the Penwith Society, Berlin was ostracised from the art colony and relocated to the New Forest in 1953. Here Berlin produced some of his most established work using animals as a source of inspiration. 1962 was a hard year for Berlin. His second wife Juanita left him for their groom Fergus Casey and the disputes which had led him to leave Cornwall inspired Berlin to write The Dark Monarch, an embittered roman à clef about the St Ives art colony and its members. This was pulled within just days of publication due to legal action. Berlin received several lawsuits following his poorly disguised and damning representations, which crippled him financially. Berlin met his third wife Julia and moved to the Isle of Wight in 1970, later settling in Wimborne. Berlin remained a prolific painter, author, and sculptor right up until his death in 1999 at the age of 88. Though a difficult character, Sven Berlin remains an undeniably important figure in the genesis of the Modern art movement in St Ives and deserves much more recognition than he has at present. Like Elizabeth Frink, another great artist from the period, the excellence displayed in his sculptures goes hand in hand with these beautiful preparatory line drawings. Exhibiting an easiness of execution, his works on paper show a flair and confidence that very few can claim to have mastered.
