A painter, writer and sculptor who spent the 1930s touring the music halls with an adagio dancing act, Sven Berlin, the self imposed 'Virgo in Exile', has finally found recognition as a founding member of the St Ives group. Although formally untrained, he moved to St Ives from London in 1938 where he quickly fell in with artists such as Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Margaret Mellis, Naum Gabo and Bernard Leach. He was instrumental in forming the Crypt Group in 1946 and the Penwith Society in 1949.
Remembered as a strong flamboyant character, the effect of his time in the music halls can be seen in his sculptures which are full of strong, bold lines. He held his first exhibition of sculpture in 1948 at the bookshop of G.R.Downing in Fore Street St Ives, but increasingly difficult relations with the rest of the group saw him leave Cornwall in 1953 for the New Forest. He joined a group of gypsies, following encouragement from Augustus John, and painted scenes of travellers, horse dealers and country dwellers until the 1970s.
In 1962 he published 'The Park Monarch,' a thinly veiled account of his St Ives contemporaries. This later had to be withdrawn, following several libel actions taken against him by other artists from the group. These actions contributed to his financial ruin.
He later moved to the Isle of Wight, and then to Wimborne, Dorset where he lived for the last 20 years of his life. He continued his writing and published two volume of his autobiography, 'Coat of Many Colours,' in 1994 and 'Virgo in Exile,' in 1996.
He died on 14 December 1999. Solo exhibitions include Sven Berlin at the Belgrave Gallery in 2006. Other exhibitions of his work include the Lefevre Gallery, Arthur Tooth and Sons Gallery, as well as further afield in Houston Texas and New York. Public institutions including the V&A, the Tate, National Library of Scotland and the Musee d'Art, Ovar, Portugal also hold examples of his work.