Patrick Heron

Waddington Galleries, London
Fiduciaire Fidulex, S.A.
New Art Centre, London

Bradford, City of Bradford Art Gallery, 1964;
Kyoto, Japan, Gallery Sanjo-Gion, St Ives Exhibition, September 1989.

The following condition report was prepared by the painting restorer Phil Young. CONDITION The painting is in good and sound condition. There is some distortion in the stretcher in the upper right where it pulls forwards slightly from the flat plane. There is some slackness in the canvas and this is reflected in distortion around the corners. A pale tape has been applied around he edges. This is unlikely to have been applied by the artist. Numerous light abrasions are seen around the edges as pale spots over the canvas texture, this is in addition to a general grubbiness caused by handling. A 6cm pale abrasion is seen running vertically 15cm in from the left edge. Herringbone pattern cracks in the black of the upper left quarter sit flat and are stable. A group of pale scratches are seen in from the upper edge 5cm down on the left side and there is a pale spot of abrasion 55cm from the left just under the upper edge where debris has pushed the canvas forwards. CONCLUSIONS The tape should be removed if possible. The areas of marking and minor abrasion can be dealt with by minimal intervention.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In 1959, Heron had entered Black Painting - Red, Brown, Olive: July 1959 (Private Collection) for the 2^nd John Moores exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery, and carried off the main prize. As with much of Heron's work, the exploration of ideas constantly overlaps, with new themes developing and feeding works already underway, something that his habit of precise dating for paintings helps us to see. Black Painting - Red, Brown, Olive: July 1959 is remarkable in a number of ways, coming as it does on the back of a series of paintings that had been focused entirely on the presentation of large areas of saturated colour that overlaid the previous forms, as in Yellow Painting with Orange and Brown-Ochre Squares: June - October 1959 (Private Collection) or Brown Ground with Soft Red and Green: August 1958 - July 1959 (Tate Collection). However, close inspection of the surface of Black Painting - Red, Brown, Olive: July 1959 reveals that Heron has here achieved a markedly different effect by his choice of colour and that the richly over-painted image is still present. However it is the contrast between the field of black (which is actually, due to the colours below, a whole range of blacks) and the small windows of bright colour that give this painting such a remarkable visual punch. As the year progressed, Heron produced other works that take this contrast of a single dominating colour as their theme, such as One Form: September 1959 (Private Collection), but what marks these paintings as different from pieces such as Black Painting - Red, Brown, Olive: July 1959 is the application of paint. Whilst the areas of colour overlay clearly discernible forms, the thinness of the paint layers offers a spontaneity and clarity to the composition. In Black Painting (Emerald Disc): March 1960, Heron has used this approach to his medium to give us an image which allows the luminosity of his colours to spring out against the black, imbuing the painting with the kind of shallow depth that would become very much the mark of his paintings in the next few years where it is the points at which these colours meet that dictates the overall perception of the painting.