Patrick Heron

Heron was one of the leading British artists of his generation, and through his writing made a significant contribution to the expansion of modernist thought on painting.

In 1956 Heron moved to Cornwall, settling into Eagles Nest, a house with sprawling gardens set in a spectacular location on the cliffs above Zennor, several miles from St Ives. His paintings quickly began to shed their figurative references in favour of pure abstraction, and the light, colours, shapes and patterns he found in his new surroundings would inspire his work for decades to come. 

Retrospectives and major exhibitions of Heron's work include The Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham (1952); Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1968); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1972); University of Texas at Austin Art Museum (1978); Barbican Art Gallery, London (1985); Camden Arts Centre, London, touring to Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol; Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston; and Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno (1994); Tate Gallery, London (1998); National Portrait Gallery, London (2013); Tate St Ives, touring to Turner Contemporary, Margate (2018). Examples of most of his graphic works are held in the permanent collection of the Tate.