Patrick Heron

Patrick Heron (Leeds, 1920 – Zennor, Cornwall, 1999) was a British painter who moved between figurative and abstract work and was one of the leading artists of his generation. His painting centres on colour and light, and his criticism, published in outlets such as the New Statesman, helped spread modernist ideas about painting in Britain.

Influenced by Cézanne, Matisse, Braque and Bonnard, he first saw Cézanne's paintings at the National Gallery in 1933 and encountered Matisse's The Red Studio at the Redfern Gallery in London in 1943. His first solo show took place at the Redfern in 1947. After settling permanently at Eagles Nest above Zennor in 1956, he entered a highly productive phase of non-figurative painting, built on striped works and vertical strokes that pushed the idea of equal importance across the canvas to its limit. After the death of his wife Delia in 1979 he returned to painting with a looser technique, and in 1989 he was artist-in-residence in Sydney, where he produced six large paintings and 46 gouaches.

His legacy lies in his defence of colour as the core subject of painting and in the major exhibitions held in his honour at the Barbican, the Camden Arts Centre and the Tate Gallery in 1998. He was a significant figure in post-war British art and was appointed CBE in 1977.