Balm

1957–1964

Teaching in schools and colleges of art

In 1957–58 she works as an art teacher for children at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Harrow, where she begins a basic design course; later she teaches at the Loughborough School of Art (1959), Hornsey College of Art and Croydon College of Art (1962–64).

spring 1962

First solo show at Gallery One

In the spring of 1962 Victor Musgrave of Gallery One holds her first solo exhibition in London; the black-and-white works are shown in numerous subsequent shows too.

1963–1964

The AICA and John Moores prizes

In 1963 she is awarded the AICA Critics Prize as well as the John Moores Liverpool Open Section Prize, and a year later a Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Travel bursary.

1965

“The Responsive Eye” at MoMA

She takes part in “The Responsive Eye,” curated by William C. Seitz at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the exhibition that first draws worldwide attention to her work and to the Op Art movement; her painting “Current” (1964) is reproduced on the catalogue cover. Artists had no copyright protection in the United States at the time and commercial concerns exploited her work, which leaves her disillusioned with such exhibitions; legislation was eventually passed in 1967 after an initiative by New York-based artists.