Ruskin Spear, CBE, RA (30 June 1911 – 17 January 1990) was an English painter.
Born in Hammersmith, Spear attended the local art school before going on to the Royal College of Art in 1930. He began his teaching career at Croydon School of Art, going on to teach at the Royal College of Art from 1948 to 1975.
Initially influenced by Sickert and the Camden Town Group, and the portraiture of the Euston Road School, his work often has a narrative quality, with elements of humor and respectful satire.
Because he used a wheelchair due to childhood polio, much of his work focused on his immediate surroundings. He rendered the citizens of Hammersmith relaxing in and around the local pubs, theaters and shops. A retrospective of Spear's work was held at the Royal Academy in 1980. His work is represented in the Tate Gallery Collection.
He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1979.
Spear was the father of musician Roger Ruskin Spear.
Famous quotes containing the words ruskin and/or spear:
“You may either win your peace or buy it: win it, by resistance to evil; buy it, by compromise with evil.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“Lift not thy spear against the Muses’ bower:
The great Emathian conqueror bid spare
The house of Pindarus, when temple and tower
Went to the ground; and the repeated air
Of sad Electra’s poet had the power
To save the Athenian walls from ruin bare.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)