Sandra Blow

Biography

One of the pioneering figures in British abstract art and a trailblazer among women artists, Sandra Blow began her career in 1941, enrolling at St Martin’s School of Art aged just 16. Over the following six decades, her expressive, large-scale and colourful canvasses – often incorporating ‘non-art’ materials such as sawdust and sackcloth – earned her exhibitions at some of the world’s most prestigious galleries, won her a teaching position at the Royal College of Art – which she held for 10 years – and had her elected to the Royal Academy. Since her death, aged 80, Blow has been honoured with a Tate Britain retrospective and a biography.