John Hoyland – abstract painter – a tribute

Photograph ©Teri Pengilley

John Hoyland was a British abstract painter who died a few days ago (12 October 1934 – 31 July 2011). Hoyland studied at Sheffield School of Art from 1951 to 1956 and subsequently at the Royal Academy Schools from 1956 to 1960. He went on to teach at Hornsey College of Art from 1960 to 1962 and at Chelsea School of Art from 1962 to 1969 where he was also Principal Lecturer from 1965 to 1969. Subsequently, he taught at St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools from 1974 to 1977 and the Slade School of Fine Art from 1974 to 1989.
Hoyland’s first solo show was held at the Marlborough New London Gallery, London in 1964. This was followed by a string of national and international solo exhibitions, including the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1967). He exhibited at the Waddington Galleries, London throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A retrospective of his work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1979 and again in 1999 in the Sackler Galleries of the Royal Academy. Hoyland’s work has also been included in numerous international group exhibitions from 1964, when his work was selected for the New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. More recently he participated in group exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and the Barbican Gallery, London in 1993, and at Galerie Josine Bokhoven, Amsterdam and the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1994.
Hoyland received many awards throughout his career, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Purchase Award (1963) and a Peter Stuyvesant travel bursary (1964). He was also a Prize Winner at the John Moore’s Liverpool Exhibition (1964) and later won First Prize (1982). He received an Arts Council purchase award (1979), joint first prize (with William Scott) in the Korn Ferry International (1986) and first prize of the Athena Art Award (1987). In 1998 he won the Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Hoyland developed strong links with America from the late 1960s. He was appointed Charles A Dana Professor of Fine Art at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York in 1972 and was artist in residence at the Studio School, New York in 1978 and at Melbourne University in 1979. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1991 and in 1999 was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy Schools. In 2001 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.

Public collections: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Arts Council of Great Britain. Art Museum of the Ateneum, Helsinki. Birmingham City Art Gallery. British Council, London. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, London. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. City Art Gallery, Manchester. Contemporary Art Society, London. Courtauld Institute, London. Frederick R Weisman Art Foundation Collection, Los Angeles. Government Art Collection, London. Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Leicestershire Education Authority. Maclaurin Collection, Rozelle, Ayr. Melbourne University Art Gallery. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I. Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro. National Museum, Finland. Neuberger Collection, University of Purchase, New York. Perth Art Gallery, Australia. Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, London. Phoenix Museum, Arizona. Picker Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York. Power Gallery of Contemporary Art, University of Sydney, Australia. Royal Academy of Arts, London. Royal College of Physicians, London. Stadtisches Museum, Leverkusen, Germany. Tate Gallery, London. Tehran Museum of Modern Art, Tehran. Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Ulster Museum, Belfast. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Warwick University. Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

1961 April 1961

1962 No. 22, 20.2.62

1966 6.3.66 acrylic on canvas

1966 19.12.66.

1966 28.5.66

1969 12.12.68

1969 17.3.69 acrylic on canvas

1969 29.03.69

1978 Landslide acrylic on canvas

1986 Quas 23.1.86 acrylic on canvas

1990 Black Something 8.2.90 acrylic on canvas

1998 Yellow Boat 7.8.98

2002 Sky Ritual acrylic on canvas

2005 The Gnome silkscreen

2006 Blue Moon oil on canvas

2006 Love and Grief 5.4.006

2007 Lebanon acrylic on cotton duck

2008 Untitled silkscreen

Life and Love silkscreen

Warrior Universe silkscreen

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