Patrick Heron

Waddington Galleries, London
Acquired from the above by J. Walter Thompson Co., Ltd, May 1967
Richard Green, London

London, Waddington Galleries, Patrick Heron: Recent Paintings, May 1967, un-numbered exhibition;
London, Barbican Art Gallery, Patrick Heron, 11th July - 1st September 1985, cat. no.45, illustrated.

Robert Hughes (intro.), The Richard Demarco Gallery, Patrick Heron Retrospective, exh. cat., June - July 1967, illustrated (dated 1957);
Studio International, 'Patrick Heron - the Development of a Painter', July-August 1967, illustrated p.23;
Anthony Everitt, Abstract Expressionism, Thames and Hudson, London, 1974, illustrated;
Mel Gooding, Patrick Heron, Phaidon Press, London Ltd., 1994, illustrated p.194. 

Original canvas. The canvas undulates very slightly in the bottom right hand corner. There is very minor possible surface dirt visible in the red pigment lower right, and very minor handling marks visible to the extreme edges. There is an extremely fine line of surface craquelure in the bottom right hand corner, and a further very fine line to the centre of the bright red pigment in the centre of the composition, but this excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals scattered minor traces of fluorescence and probable retouchings to the extreme edges and the extreme tip of the bottom right corner. These have all been very sensitively executed. Tightly float-mounted in a white wooden box frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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‘The contemplation of pure colour holds pleasures too numerous to name…in fact there is an intense elation in allowing the awareness of colour to flood the mind.’ (Patrick Heron, ‘Colour in My Painting,’ Studio International, December 1969, reprinted in Vivien Knight (ed.), Patrick Heron, London, 1988, p.34).

Heron’s paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s are probably his most instantly recognisable works, the 'wobbly hard-edge' manner he had perfected allowing him to fully experiment with space and colour, the twin concepts that had occupied him since the earliest part of his career. The paintings he produced in this period are mostly of substantial size and were produced in a very specific way, with the forms drawn in very quickly and spontaneously onto the prepared canvas, often in a matter of seconds. Heron recounts that the move from his earlier works was spurred on by a return to drawing- which during the years immediately preceding this change had held for him little interest:

 ‘The previous period was made up of soft discs and rectangles which could be likened to islands in a sea. Then I began to draw, and draw right up to the edges of the canvas. The painting that started it was Rectilinear Reds and Blues from 1963. I drew it on with soft charcoal, and then rubbed it off, so if you got a pair of specs on you could probably see traces of a drawn line. Then I painted right up to that line with big soft brushes’ (Martin Gayford, ‘“Looking is more interesting than doing anything else, ever": An Interview with Patrick Heron', Patrick Heron, exh. cat., Tate, London, 1998, p.39).

Each colour had to be painted in a single session to ensure that the colours remained uniform, and each is just a single layer of paint with no overlapping. Heron's intention was that the viewer would thus be presented with pure colours in juxtaposition, the forms and their boundaries affecting the perceived spatial relationships. The scale of these paintings, and thus the visual impact of the meeting points of these large areas of vivid colour, is a key element in their success.

As the artist was to observe, the final brushstroke which covered the last trace of the white ground marked the moment at which all the elements came together in balance and the colours began to function with and against each other. The sheer involvement of painting these pictures is clear from a close inspection of the surface, with their network of fine fluid brushstrokes declaring the joy of painting. This immediacy allows the paintings to carry huge impact and vigour. When seen in the broader context of painting of the period, the vivacity of Heron's art is immediately clear and still looks remarkable at the space of over four decades.

The Estate of Patrick Heron is preparing the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Artist's work and would like to hear from owners of any works by Patrick Heron, so that these can be included in this comprehensive catalogue.

Please write to The Estate of Patrick Heron, c/o Modern & Post-War British Art, Sotheby's, 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA.