Patrick Heron

Patrick Heron was born in Leeds but moved to Cornwall with his family in 1925, where his father set up a garment factory in Newlyn Harbour. This blossomed into Cresta Silks in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, where Heron made some remarkably successful designs. In 1937 the artist began a part-time study at The Slade School of Fine Art before working as an agricultural laborer during the war. From 1944 - 5 he was an assistant at Bernard Leach Pottery, St Ives, where he met Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. In 1945 Heron married his childhood sweetheart Delia Reiss and they lived in Holland park, London; spending their summers at a house on the sea wall in St Ives. After working as an art critic for the New English Weekly for two years, Heron had his first solo show at the Redfern Gallery, London in 1947. In 1953 he started a teaching job at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and in 1956 moved to Cornwall, settling at Eagle's Nest in Zennor. Heron inherited Ben Nicholson’s studio overlooking Porthmeor beach at St Ives. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation making a significant contribution to the dissemination of modernist ideas of painting through his critical writing and primarily his art. His early work was influenced by that of Georges Braque and Henri Matisse however, in the mid-fifties the artist developed an incredibly unique painterly style that harmoniously fused vivid pigments and intricate patterns. He became devoted to the analyses of natural forms and colours; evident from his abstract works, particularly those made up of horizontal or vertical stripes or with softer-edged shapes, where colour is used to express the pleasure of sight. Heron was awarded the Grand prize at the second John Moores Liverpool Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in 1959 and the Silver Medal at São Paulo Biennale VIII in 1965. Exhibitions include the Redfern Gallery, London, the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in New York in 1960, Bonython Art Gallery, Sydney in 1973 and the inaugural exhibition of the Tate St Ives in 1993. In 1998 Heron was given a retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London and today his work can be found in many important public collections such as in the Tate Gallery, St Ives and the National Galleries, Scotland.