Ray Mead was a painter and commercial artist who was born in Watford, Hertfordshire England. He emigrated to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1946 then moved to Toronto, Ontario. In 1958, he moved to Montreal, returning to Toronto in 1987 where he lived the rest of his life and died.

His mediums were oil, acrylic, watercolour, ink, monotypes and collage. His best known subjects are non-objective abstracts however, he has done landscape, still life and figures. His style is abstract expressionism frequently identified by large simple shapes on large canvases. They show the influence of Nicolas De Stael (see AskART) and Franz Kline (see AskART), two artists he admired.

He studied at the Watford School of Art and, draughtsmanship and painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1937 -1941) under Randolph Schwabe (see AskART). In the summer he also studied with Gilbert Spencer (see AskART).

He was a member of the Canadian Group of Painters (see AskART) and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. During World War II he was a pilot in the RAF. However, his greatest claim to fame would have to be as a member of the Painters Eleven (see AskART glossary). They were a group of Canadian abstract painters who took their cue from artists such as Jackson Pollock (see AskART) and de Kooning (see AskART), members of the New York School (see AskART glossary) of abstract expressionists. The purpose of P11 was to promote abstract art in English Canada, primarily through joint exhibitions. They formed in 1953 and seven of them, including Mead, had a show in October of that year at The Robert Simpson Company Limited (a Toronto department store) titled "Abstracts at Home". In February of 1954 all eleven combined for their first show at Roberts Gallery (Toronto). By the time they disbanded in 1960, the Eleven were a major force in establishing modern art in Canada and are still a major influence in the Canadian art market. Their art is now a prized and prominent feature in many private, corporate and public collections throughout Canada. The last living member Tom Hodgson (see AskArt) died in 2006.

In addition to showing with the above artist groups Mead has also had numerous solo, duo and other group exhibitions, they include " The Annual Exhibition" at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (1947-1951); the "Jubilee Year Art Show" at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1950); "The First Biennial" at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1955); "Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal" also at the National Gallery of Canada (traveling-1960/61); "The Formal Lyricists" at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1960); "La Peinture Canadienne Moderne", 5th Festival des Deux Mondes, Spoleto, Italy (1962); "Ray Mead and Paterson Ewen" at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1963); "Centennial Exhibition" at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario (1967); "Toronto Painting 1953-63" at the Art Gallery of Ontario (1972); "Painters Eleven" at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Ontario (1974); "Two Decades: Ray Mead" at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario (1982); the "Chicago International Art Exposition", Chicago (1987, 1988); "Ray Mead: the Papers" at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (traveling-1988/89); "Achieving The Modern" at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (traveling-1992/93); "The Crisis Of Abstraction In Canada" at the National Gallery of Canada (traveling-1993/95), and "Painters Eleven - U.S. Tour" at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (traveling-1993/95).

His work is in many private and public collections. Some of the public collections are the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Robert McLauglin Gallery (Oshawa), the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), the London Regional Historical Museum & Gallery (Ontario), the McKenzie Art Gallery (Regina), the Lethbridge University Art Gallery (Alberta), the Glenbow Museum (Calgary), the Art Gallery of Windsor (Ontario), the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba), the Kitchener and Waterloo Art Gallery (Ontario) and the University of Toronto Art Gallery.

As a prominent artist his work is discussed in numerous magazine and newspaper articles as well as in many books about Canadian art history. He is also listed in A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974) by Colin S. MacDonald; The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction" (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar. His work is also illustrated and discussed in Contemporary Canadian Art (1983) by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff; in Visions - Contemporary Art in Canada (1983) various authors and editors; The History of Painting in Canada - Toward A peoples Art (1974) by Barry Lord; A Concise History of Canadian Painting (1973) by Dennis Reid; Four Decades (1972) by Paul Duval; Painting in Canada: A History (1966) by J. Russell Harper; The Best Contemporary Canadian Art (1987) by Joan Murray; Canadian Drawings and Prints (1952) by Paul Duval; and in Canadian Water Colour Painting (1954), by Paul Duval.


Prepared and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke