Biography
The earlier paintings and works on paper in this exhibition from the 50’s depict Heron’s progression from figuration to abstraction. The majority of works in the current exhibition come directly from the artist’s family, and several have never been previously exhibited. In 1956 Heron returned to Cornwall after spending over a decade in London and inspired by the gardens surrounding his new home Eagles Nest, he began his ‘stripe paintings’ such as ‘Cave : September : 1956’. Alongside these came his first ‘garden paintings’ such as ‘Red Painting : June 1957’. The development from his figurative work was in part a response to the work of American Abstract Expressionists whose work he saw as bringing ‘a new kind of energy and inventiveness’, but also from the continual influence of the great French colourists Bonnard and Matisse. From 1958 he began to paint fields of colour containing soft edged squares and discs. In 1963 the critic Norbert Lynton wrote the defining phrase about Heron’s latest paintings, ‘it is not possible even to distinguish significantly between the forms and the colour fields they inhabit’. By the late sixties he was working on a much larger scale and applying paint with tiny brushes which, in paintings such as ‘Dark Red with Venetian, Violet and Two Scarlets : 1969’, give an overall texture to the richly coloured surface of the canvas.
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Patrick Heron, Red Painting : June 1957, 1957 oil on canvas 50 x 40 in / 127 x 101.6 cm
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Patrick Heron, Squares on Dull Green : January 1960, 1960 oil on canvas 48 x 30 in / 121.9 x 76.2 cm
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Patrick Heron, Summer Painting : August 1956, 1956 oil on canvas 72 x 36 in / 182.9 x 91.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Tall Purple : September 1962, 1962 oil on canvas 72 x 30 in / 182.9 x 76.2 cm
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Patrick Heron, Three Blues in Violet (with White) : December 1961, 1961 oil on canvas 48 x 60 in / 121.9 x 152.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Two Lozenges in Soft Scarlet : August 1961 PH.61/O/25, 1961 oil on paper 17 3/4 x 27 3/4 in / 45.1 x 70.5 cm
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Patrick Heron, Vermilions and Cadmiums : 1964, 1964 oil on canvas 40 x 60 in / 101.6 x 152.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Sharp Ceruleum over Deep Purple : November 1962, 1962 oil on canvas 40 x 60 in / 101.6 x 152.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Black Shape : March 1960, 1960 oil on canvas 72 x 48 in / 182.9 x 121.9 cm
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Patrick Heron, Black Vertical : 1956, 1956 oil on canvas 36 x 17 3/4 in / 91.4 x 45.1 cm
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Patrick Heron, Blue Horizon : March 1957, 1957 oil on canvas 72 x 36 in / 182.9 x 91.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Blue Square inside Violet Square (Scarlet) : July 1961, 1961 oil on paper 17 5/8 x 27 5/8 in / 44.8 x 70.2 cm
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Patrick Heron, Blues with Brown Area : December 1962, 1962 oil on canvas 30 x 48 in / 76.2 x 121.9 cm
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Patrick Heron, Bright Rectangles : 1963 PH.63/G/11, 1963
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Patrick Heron, Cave : September : 1956, 1956 oil on canvas 50 x 40 in / 127 x 101.6 cm
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Patrick Heron, Dark Red with Venetian, Violet and Two Scarlets : 1969, 1969 oil on canvas 78 x 156 in / 198.1 x 396.2 cm
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Patrick Heron, Dull Green with White : December 1961, 1961 oil on canvas 72 x 48 in / 182.9 x 121.9 cm
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Patrick Heron, Five Shapes in Brown : March 3 : 1962, 1962 oil on canvas 10 1/8 x 12 1/8 in / 25.7 x 30.8 cm
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Patrick Heron, Green and Purple - Red Line round Blue : January 1961, 1961 oil on paper 17 3/4 x 27 3/4 in / 45.1 x 70.5 cm
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Patrick Heron, Green on Brown : October 1960, 1960 oil on canvas 48 x 30 in / 121.9 x 76.2 cm
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Patrick Heron, Hard Disc, Soft Square (Coffee Ochre) : February 1961, 1961 gouache on paper 22 1/8 x 30 3/8 in / 56.2 x 77.1 cm
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Patrick Heron, Incandescent Skies (Yellow and Rose) : December 1957, 1957 oil on canvas 72 x 36 in / 182.9 x 91.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Lemon in Plum, Orange in Pink : December 1966, 1966 gouache on paper 15 3/8 x 22 1/2 in / 39 x 57.1 cm
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Patrick Heron, May : 1965, 1965 oil on canvas 72 x 36 in / 182.9 x 91.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, November 21 : 1968, 1968 oil on canvas 30 x 40 in / 76.2 x 101.6 cm
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Patrick Heron, October Horizon : October 1957, 1957 oil on canvas 48 x 22 in / 121.9 x 55.9 cm
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Patrick Heron, Plum and Dirty Naples : July 1960, 1960 oil on paper 27 5/8 x 17 3/4 in / 70.2 x 45.1 cm
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Patrick Heron, Big Grey - with Disc : June - September 1959 PH.59/O/09, 1959
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Patrick Heron, Black Green and Red : February 1958, 1958, collection of Museu Coleção Berardo oil on canvas 72 x 36 in / 182.9 x 91.4 cm
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Patrick Heron, Red in Red (Vertical) with Blues : July 1961, 1961 oil on paper 27 1/2 x 17 1/2 in / 69.8 x 44.4 cm