Patrick Heron

Patrick Heron was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived most of his life in Zennor, Cornwall.

Heron was recognised as a leading painter of his generation. Influenced by Cézanne, Matisse, Braque and Bonnard, Heron made a significant contribution to the dissemination of modernist ideas of painting through his critical writing and primarily his art. Heron's artworks are noted for his exploration and use of colour and light. He is known for both his early figurative work before 1955, and later non-figurative works.   

The Redfern Gallery, hosted Heron's first London solo exhibition in 1947. He moved to Waddington Gallery, London, in 1957. His first solo exhibition in New York was held at the Bertha Schaefer Gallery in 1960. 

Heron won the Grand Prize at the John Moores Prize Exhibition in Liverpool in 1959 and the silver medal at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1965. He had retrospective exhibitions at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1972 and the Barbican Art Gallery in 1985, and the Tate Gallery, London, hosted a major retrospective in 1998 and at Tate St Ives in 2018 which travelled to Turner Contemporary in 2019. 

Patrick Heron’s estate is represented by Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert in London.