William Gear: the painter that Britain forgot

He studied under Léger and was shown alongside Pollock before dictating cultural tastes on Britain’s south coast. So why has William Gear been erased from art history?In 1958, the artist William Gear arrived in Eastbourne to take up a position as curator of the Towner Gallery. Alas, not everyone was thrilled by his arrival, at least not after he began acquiring art on the town’s behalf. “I think this sort of painting is decadent,” lamented an enraged councillor of Harold Mockford’s Ea