In traditional Aldeburgh mode, the art trail strikes out beyond the High Street and up the Town Steps to Robert Sadler’s studio on the Terrace… Climbing up the spiral staircase to visit Robert Sadler’s studio, where his very beautiful abstract paintings are displayed and stacked in piles all around the floor and on tables and chests, is less like visiting an exhibition and more like being allowed a privileged and intimate glimpse behind the scenes of an artist’s working space. A fixture on the Aldeburgh calendar for over thirty years, this cannot be missed.
Since Robert Sadler’s death in 2001, around 400 of his paintings have been bought by collectors and admirers from around the world at exhibitions, auctions and privately, but around 1,000 paintings remain available in our collection, and a (free) USB flashdrive of these is available on request. His paintings are now being appreciated as some of the more affordable examples of the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Exhibitions
Recent:
Art for Cure (online) 2020 7-31 May
The ArtSpace, Woodbridge, 2018
Edge Gallery, Orford (Hugh Pilkington), 2008, 2009, 2012
RE+New Gallery, Woodbridge, 2011
Strand Gallery, Aldeburgh, 2010
Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, 2009
1964-96:
Festival Gallery, Aldeburgh (1966)
Royal Institute Gallery (1969)
Framlingham Art Gallery (1974)
Reades Gallery, Aldeburgh (1976)
Tryon Gallery, North Carolina, USA (1979)
Philip Francis Gallery, Sheffield (1984)
EU Parliament, Strasbourg (1985/6)
New English Art Club (1986)
Saxmundham Music and Arts (1994)
Aldeburgh 100 (1995)
The Red Studio, Aldeburgh (1996)
1955-64:
The Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (1955)
The Royal Institute Galleries Summer Salon (1955)
The Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1955 and 1957)
Heffers Gallery, Cambridge (1955,1958 and 1964)
New Vision Centre Gallery (1957)
The John Moores Liverpool Exhibition (1957/8)
Bradford City Art Gallery (1959)
King Street Gallery, Cambridge (1959 and 1960)
Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors (1960 and 1961)
Obelisk Gallery, Washington DC (1960)
Gainsborough House Society (1962)
CEMA, Belfast (1962)
Saffron Walden Festival (1962)
Argos Gallery, Aldeburgh (1963)
The Stable Gallery, Ufford (1964)
Auctions
2023:
Sworders: Cheffins; Reeman Dansie, Colchester
2022:
Sworders; Cheffins; Rosebery's, London
2021:
Sworders; Cheffins
2020:
Sworders; Cheffins; Clarke & Simpson, Campsea Ashe
2019:
Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchet
2018:
Sworders, Stansted Mountfitchett
2017:
Bonhams; Sworders; Clarke & Simpson
2016:
Bonhams auction house, London
2015:
Bonhams auction house, London
Background
1909:
Born in Newmarket Suffolk - son of a racehorse trainer.
1930:
Joined Royal Air Force as a pilot from Cambridge University Air Squadron. The following 25 years were spent on postings in Egypt, France, Turkey, Denmark and Washington where he was a representative on the NATO joint chiefs of staff intelligence committee.
1955:
Retired from RAF “to devote the rest of my life to painting”. Painted horses with Sir Alfred Munnings on Newmarket Heath, but concentrated on Abstract Expressionism.
1964:
Moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Exhibited annually in his studio until 2001.