Artist Database

English by birth, Frank Spears emigrated to South Africa in 1928 as a designer for Brimble and Briggs Ltd. In 1934, he joined the South African Society of Artists and was elected its President from 1945-1947. Spears’ style was initially impressionistic but changed to favour abstraction after encountering the movement during a 1949 trip to the USA. In the 1950s, he also experimented with non-figural art but soon returned to more figural forms He exhibited in many group and solo shows throughout South Africa and London and was chosen as one of the artists to represent South Africa in the 1966 Venice Biennale.

In 1932, Spears married writer and poet Dorothea Botha with whom he had two sons. In 1970, the couple moved to England and lived there until their deaths in 1991.