Patrick Heron

Patrick Heron (1920-1999), as one of the first British artists to embrace abstraction, played a major role in the development of post-World War II art. Heron welcomed the eruption of American art in the 1950s and was strongly affected by his first encounters with Abstract Expressionism, yet European artists such as Matisse, Bonnard, and Braque remained a fundamental influence on his work. This dialogue was played out in paintings that pursued the ideal of art as pure visual sensation. This book accompanies the first extensive presentation of Heron's distinctive abstract canvases in more than 20 years. Fully illustrated, the book showcases the full evolution of Heron's vibrant abstract language and offers a unique opportunity to explore the extent of this modern master's sense of scale, color, and composition. Thought-provoking texts introduce and explain Heron's visual strategies, illustrated with examples from throughout his artistic career and theories from his own writing.