Biography
John Milnes-Smith (b. Laleham, Middlesex, UK 1912 - d. London 1998) trained as an architect, studying at the Architectural Association (1934-39). He worked in private practice as an architect and became a specialist in planning regulations, specifically in the field of the conservation and preservation of historic buildings. From 1963 to 1978 he worked with the Historic Buildings Division of the Greater London Council. Milnes-Smith began to paint in the late 1940s in a representational style, but soon moved towards abstraction. In 1951 he took part in a pioneering exhibition, British Abstract Art, at Gimpel Fils in London.
Milnes-Smith participated in many group show in the 1950s including with The London Group, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Redfern Gallery - Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract (1957), Lords Gallery and the Artists' International Association (AIA) - The Mirror and the Square (1952). He became a member of the Central Committee of the AIA between 1962 and 1964. In 1958 he was included in British Abstract Painting at the Auckland City Art Gallery, New Zealand; was one of Eight British Artists (1961) (Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, Alan Davie, Elisabeth Frink, Kenneth Armitage, and Jack Smith were the others) at the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, DC.
In 1963 he had a solo exhibition at the Drian Gallery, London, where he regularly exhibited for over 20 years. In 1980 he was one of the artists selected by Halima Nalecz, the Drian's director, for the collection she donated to the Gdansk National Museum in Poland.
In 1988 Milnes-Smith showed with England & Co, London in Reflections of the Fifties and later in the same year took part in Post-War British Abstract Art at Austin Desmond, London where he had a retrospective in 1990. Throughout the 1990s he contributed to numerous group exhibitions at England & Co, the last in August 1998, the same years he last exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
