John Hoyland

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

Dan Christensen

Dan Christensen (1942 – 2007) was born in Cozad, Nebraska. Christensen chose to become an artist when, as a teenager, he saw the work of Jackson Pollock on a trip to Denver. After receiving his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, in 1964, he moved to New York. His “spray loop” paintings, produced by using a spray paint gun, were an embodiment of the reductive abstract tendencies in 1960s American art, and of the interest of the time in innovative applications of new techniques. With their powerful ribbon-like configurations, and shimmering all-over surface effects, these works won the attention of art critic Clement Greenberg who became an enthusiastic supporter of Christensen’s art.

Christensen had his first solo exhibition in New York in 1967. Two years later he was given a show at the Andre Emmerich Gallery, joining this important showcase for colour-field painting, where works by artists such as Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and Helen Frankenthaler were also shown. Christensen soon started to be invited to participate in major museum shows, including the Whitney Annuals in New York and the Corcoran Gallery’s Biennials in Washington, D.C.

In 2001 Dan Christensen’s unique approach to line and shape was highlighted in the survey of his art held at the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. He received several awards, including a National Endowment Grant, 1968, a Guggenheim Fellowship Theodoran Award, 1969, a Gottlieb Foundation Grant, 1986, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 1992. His art is included in many important public collections

Dan Christensen, who began visiting eastern Long Island in the 1960s, lived in East Hampton until his death in 2007. My thanks to LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, for permission to use some of the images below.

1967 Untitled 
© LewAllen Galleries

1968 Chevade

1968 Pavo

1968 Untitled

1970 Hornet 
© LewAllen Galleries

1970 Yellow Bumper

1979 Atlantic Champagne

1982 Crayola

1986 Dromos

1988 Swing Low 
© LewAllen Galleries

1988 Troubador

1989 Tour de France 
© LewAllen Galleries

1996 New Morning 
© LewAllen Galleries

1996 Nexx Central Revisited 
© LewAllen Galleries

1998 TBD

2000 Ray

2000 Shoxa

2001 Swing Street

2004 Torodoro 
© LewAllen Galleries

2006 Amino Royale

Pierre Bonnard - part 4

1945 Self-portrait oil on canvas

This is the last part of a 4 - part post on the works of French artist Pierre Bonnard. For biographical notes and paintings, see parts one and two. Part three looks at Bonnard’s lithographic prints. This part looks at some of his commercial work.

Bonnard's first formal art job was a commissioned poster for France-Champagne. Using a style that was reminiscent of Japanese art with its linear, decorative line, this prize-winning poster became an outstanding success for Bonnard. It also drew the attention of other famous artists, notably Toulouse Lautrec. It is interesting to note that this poster's appearance is similar to Lautrec's style, where a joyful young woman is enjoying a glass of champagne from an overflowing bottle.

1891 France - Champagne

Bonnard continued to show his new works (mostly lithographs) at the Salon des Independants. During this time, he met Marthe Boursin, who would become his lifelong companion and model for some 384 of his paintings.

In addition to paintings and posters, Bonnard also sketched in the 1890's. As his reputation grew, he started getting more offers to produce illustrations and undertake commissioned work. In 1894, Bonnard created a poster and several lithographs for the popular La Revue Blanche magazine.

1891 Folies Bergere

1927 Preliminary drawing for a poster for Le Moulin-Rouge
(see below)

1891 Le Moulin Rouge

c1891-3 Solfège, preliminary cover design for Petit Solfège Illustré

1894 La revue blanche

1896 Exhibition poster for "Les Peintres-Graveurs"

1896 Salon des Cent

1897 Poster for L'Estampe et L'Affiche

1898 Poster for La Lithographie originale en couleurs

1914 Les Ballets Russes

1927 Preliminary drawing for "Lire dans Le Figaro"
(see below)

1927  Lire dans Le Figaro

Album des Peintres-Graveurs

Femme au parapluie from the portfolio "L'Album de la Revue Blanche"

Le Figaro

Preliminary drawing for cover of "Mandoline, morceaux de piano de Thomé"

Quelques aspects de Paris

Reine de Joie