Portland Gallery has a proud history of acquiring and exhibiting Modern British abstract paintings and works on paper. Our current selection encompasses many of the principal trends in post-war British art. We are keen to present artists of genuine merit, not all of whom received the recognition their work deserves in the past, alongside figures who have become household names.
 

Abstract art flourished in the immediate post-war period. Escaping the Blitz in London, an early vanguard of progressive abstract artists settled in the small fishing town of St Ives in Cornwall. Artists such as Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Patrick Heron and Terry Frost flocked to the area and joined figures such at Peter Lanyon who grew up in the county. These artists, although stylistically varied, took the surrounding environment as their inspiration and produced paintings that were abstractions from nature.

 

Meanwhile, a generation of artists in London, initially led by figures such as Anthony Hill and Adrian Heath, sought to create purely abstract images. Compositions were determined by the juxtaposition of complimentary forms and colours. Their experimentation reached its logical conclusion with the Systems Group, including Jean Spencer, Peter Lowe and Jeffrey Steele, whose compositions were governed by mathematic principles and rational order.

 

While the Systems artists found beauty in geometry, others revelled in more gestural forms of expression. Artists such as Alan Davie and Albert Irvin produced wildly dynamic paintings where the act (and joy) of creating was almost as important as the final artwork. Their work plays on our imaginations in much the same way music does.

 

For more information on individual artists and artworks, please email jamie@portlandgallery.com