SHEILA GIRLING: OBITUARY

Sheila Girling: Obituary 

This is a summary of the obituary of Sheila Girling that was published in The Guardian newspaper on 24 February 2015.  The author is Christopher Masters. 

Sheila Girling

Sheila Girling was born in 1924: she died on 14 February 2015.

Sheila is acknowledged for her influence on her husband – the sculptor Anthony Caro.  She is also known for her acrylics and collages.

Girling often chose the colours for Caro’s sculptures.  Thus, Caro’s ‘seminal’ ‘Early One Morning’ of 1962 is red, but Caro originally intended it to be ‘an unappealing green’: ‘the history of postwar British art was undoubtedly the better for it’.  Girling was a ‘true modernist’.

Girling was born in Birmingham into an artistic family.  As a young woman Girling attended the Birmingham School of Art and then the Royal Academy Schools in London.  She met Caro at the RA in 1948.  In the late 1960s, after time spent in the USA, the Caros settled in studios in Camden Town where they worked together.  Caro died in 2013. 

In the time since settling in Camden Girling produced ‘works of an impressive emotional range within a clearly defined, highly abstracted style’.  Girling also produced figurative portraits. 

A retrospective exhibition will be held at Annely Juda Fine Art in London from 10^th September 2015.