Robin Denny
Confronted by the monumental hard-edge paintings from the mid-1960s of Robyn Denny, who has died aged 83, the viewer may be reminded of the famous figures of the New York School – Barnett Newman or Mark Rothko, perhaps. Often in muted blues, greys and browns, and with sharply abutted planes of colour crystallising into a geometrical figure that locks the gaze, these works, however, are the product of a reaction to the British tradition of landscape painting.
Denny's artistic journey to these linear works, which dominated his 1973 Tate retrospective (at the time, he was the youngest artist so to be honoured), began in the 50s, when he was a tachiste – a European variant of abstract expressionist. Paint was variously thrown, moved about with a stick, shoved through stencils and set on fire by the self-styled "fully fledged abstract artist".
Born Edward Maurice Fitzgerald Denny in Abinger, Surrey, he was the third son of Henry, an Anglo-Irish clergyman, and his wife, Joan, whose maiden name was also Denny and who called the boy Robin, which he adapted to Robyn as a teenager.
Admiring of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, he was rebellious from an early age, and perceived that becoming a painter would allow him to practise his waywardness professionally. An early outrage was his overpainting in bright primary colours of the plaster reredos in his father's church at Burwash, East Sussex. The act precipitated an emergency meeting of traumatised village elders. There was irony decades later in his being commissioned to create his serene reredos at the church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Acton, west London.
Educated at Clayesmore school, Dorset, he taught briefly, before doing his national service in the Royal Navy. This ended in 1951 by mutual consent when he declined to participate in any further physical activity or, indeed, to wear any outer clothing. He headed for Paris, a pilgrimage undertaken by many aspiring postwar artists, but found himself more drawn to the Beat culture of resident ex-GIs than to the embers of European modernism. He duly returned to London to enrol first (with an endorsement by Henry Moore) at St Martin's School of Art, then at the Royal College of Art.
Perhaps influenced by the iconoclasm of Wyndham Lewis, with whom he was acquainted, Denny, with his explosively informal work and attitude, soon established himself as one of the most radical students. An avowed urbanite despite his rural upbringing, he joined the burgeoning new-wave crusade against what was perceived as the insidious duality of the mainstream St Ives movement, exemplified by the work of Patrick Heron and others, rejecting "a bad attitude that ran right through British art, with modernised landscape its root". On seeing the vitality of Rothko, Jackson Pollock and the early pop artist Stuart Davis at the Tate in 1956, he was convinced that his own work could be imbued with the spirit of its urban context.
After his graduation from the RCA in 1957, he showed initially with the radical Gallery One, then with Gimpels Fils. His first commercial works were distressed mosaics, some sporting plastic house numbers bought from Woolworth's. However, by the time of Situation, a peer-group exhibition of large, resolute abstracts at the RBA Galleries in 1960, he had assimilated the presence in Tintoretto, the economy of Newman and the scale of CinemaScope, and was producing monumental, formal canvases. Poorly attended as it was, the exhibition relegated insular St Ives abstractionism to quaintness and initiated today's internationalised British art scene.
By 1964, Denny was with the ultra-modern Kasmin Gallery and enjoying considerable commercial success at home and abroad. He represented Britain at the 1966 Venice Biennale, and in 1974 held eight solo exhibitions in Europe alone. By the end of the 70s, his work had been acquired by almost every important art institution, including the Tate, which has more than 80 pieces, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Sometimes an early major retrospective can stimulate the desire for change in an artist. Certainly, the years following the 1973 Tate show saw a rapid, almost wilful dismantling of Denny's aesthetic, the blank colour fields enlarging and variegating, and the characteristic hard edges disintegrating. Living in Los Angeles from 1981 to 1986, he produced typically huge austere monochromes in blue or red, enlivened only by a central knot of paint.
In later work, created in the vast studio in Bermondsey, south London, shared with Marjorie Abela – whom he married in 1995 – he embarked on unprecedented three-dimensional aesthetic adventures with little commercial potential. When the new pieces were exhibited at the Hirschl Gallery in 2001, his first solo exhibition in nine years, few found new homes.
But Denny never seemed to lose confidence, persisting undaunted in his accustomed scale of 8ft x 6ft plus, and believing that this later work would in time have its moment. By the end of his life he was back in the spotlight – the Tate hanging his pictures once more, and Jonathan Clark hosting a couple of practically sold-out shows of earlier work.
He was great company, with a stock of hilarious anecdotes about the great and the good who had crossed his path. Completely unshockable, he was enormously warm and empathetic, and an abiding support to his family and friends.
He is survived by Marjorie, his children, Dom and Lucy, from his first marriage to Anna Teasdale, which ended in divorce in 1975, his son Ned from a relationship with Katharine Reid, and his grandchildren, Charles and Zephir.
Source:
"Robyn Denny Obituary," by Jeff Amos, May 29, 2014, The Guardian, Web
Select Timeline
1951-54 St Martin's School of Art.
1954-57 Royal College of Art.
1958 first one-man exhibition Gallery One; Italian State Scholarship.
1957-59 taught part- time Hammersmith College of Art. Taught BAA part-time from 1959, travelling from London. Taught basic design; largely responsible for content of Visual Communications Course. Executed murals at Abbey Wood Primary School 1959 (there followed other commissions for public buildings.)
1960 Situation RBA Galleries.
1961-63 Art critic for Das Kunstwerk (Baden).
1962 one-man exhibitions Milan & Stuttgart.
1963-64 Art critic for Art International, since written for many publications.
1963 British Painting in the Sixties Whitechapel Art Gallery.
1965 one-man exhibition Robert Elkon Gallery, New York.
1965-72 taught Slade School of Art.
1966 Venice Biennale.
1967 Visiting Professor, Minneapolis School of Art.
1969 first of several one-man exhibitions Waddington Galleries.
1973 retrospective Tate Gallery (British Council European Tour). Frequent one-man exhibitions Europe and USA.
1984 began commission for London Transport, Embankment Station.
1988 Exhibition Road. Painters at the Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art.
Select Exhibitions
1953 - Young Contemporaries, RBA Galleries, London
1957 - The British School at Rome, Imperial Institute, London
1957 - New Trends in British Art, New York Art Foundation, Rome
1957 - Young Contemporaries, RBA Galleries, London
1957 - Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract, Redfern Gallery, London
1957 - Critics Choice, (Neville Wallis) Arthur Tooth & Sons, London
1957 - Dimensions, O'Hana Gallery, London
1957 - Summer Exhibition, Gimpel Fils, London
1958 - British Abstract Painting, Auckland City Art Gallery; touring to National Gallery of Art, Sydney
1958 - Gallery One, London
1958 - Gimpel Fils, London
1958 - London Group, RBA Galleries, London
1958 - Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London
1958 - Robyn Denny and Charles Carey, Gallery One, London
1958 - American Guggenheim Awards, Manchester City Art Gallery,;Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Brighton Art Gallery
1958 - Contemporary Art Acquisitions, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
1959 - London Group, RBA Galleries, London
1959 - British Paintings and Prints from Paris Biennale, AIA Gallery, London
1959 - Premio Lissone, Milan
1959 - Place, ICA, London
1960 - Situation, RBA Galleries, London
1961 - Molton Gallery, London
1961 - AIA - Directions/Connections, London
1961 - Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1961 - New London Situation, New London Gallery
1961 - Six Young Painters, Arts Council Tour
1962 - Denny/Greninger/Olsen, Galerie Handschin, Basel
1962 - Nine Painters from England, Galleria Trastevere, Rome
1962 - Towards Art, Royal College of Art, London
1963 - Galerie Muller, Stuttgart
1963 - Towards Art, Arts Council, Touring Exhibition
1963 - 7 Junge Englische Malerei, Kunsthalle, Basle
1963 - Galerie Huber, Zurich
1963 - Ten Years, Gallery One, London
1963 - 7th International Biennale, Tokyo
1963 - British Painting in the 60's, Tate Gallery, London
1964 - Contemporary British Painting and Sculpture, Albright-Know Gallery, Buffalo
1964 - Documenta III, Kassel
1964 - Young British Painters, 1955-1960, Art Gallery of New South Wales
1964 - Kasmin Gallery, London
1965 - New Painting 1961-65, Arts Council Touring Exhibition
1965 - Paris Biennale, Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1965 - Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1965 - Focus on Drawing, Art Gallery of Toronto
1966 - Caro/Cohen/Denny/Smith, Kasmin Gallery, London
1966 - XXXIII Biennale, Venice
1966 - 5 Junge Englander, Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Biennale Venedig
1966 - International Print Biennale, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art
1966 - Robyn Denny/ John Ernest, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1967 - 1968 - John Moores Liverpool Exhibition VI, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
1967 - Jeunes Peintres Anglais, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
1967 - Four Young English Painters, Kunsthalle, Mannheim
1967 - Recent British Painting, Stuyvesant Foundation, Tate Gallery
1967 - Exposition Internationale de Gravures, Vancouver
1967 - 7th Exposition Internationale, Modern Galeria Llubljana
1967 - Kasmin Gallery, London
1967 - Robert Elkon Gallery, New York
1968 - Ornamentale Tendenzen, Schloss Wolfsburg
1968 - Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh International, Pittsburgh
1968 - A Collector's Exhibition, Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Canada
1968 - Purchases, The Contemporary Art Society
1968 - Works on Paper, Waddington Gallery, London
1968 - Ceri Richards/Robyn Denny, Arnolfini Art Centre, Bristol
1968 - Arte Moltiplicate, Galleria Milano
1968 - Suites, Recent Prints, Jewish Museum, New York
1968 - Prospect 68, Dusseldorf
1969 - Exhibition of Alecto Colour Boxes, Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer, New York
1969 - Contemporary British Paintings, South African Tour
1969 - Kasmin Artists, Arts Council Gallery, Belfast
1969 - New Editions, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1969 - Contemporary British Painting, Art Centre, Delaward
1969 - Kasmin Gallery, London
1969 - Waddington Gallery, London
1969 - Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1970 - Kasmin Gallery, London
1970 - Robert Elkon Gallery, New York
1970 - Arts Council Touring Exhibition
1970 - Kelpra Prints, Hayward Gallery, London
1970 - Contemporary British Art, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1970 - British Painting and Sculpture 1960-70, National Gallery, Washington DC
1971 - Galerie Mikro, Berlin
1971 - Galerie Muller, Cologne
1971 - Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1972 - Galerie Ziegler, Geneva
1972 - Alecto International, Studio La Citta, Verona
1973 - Studio la Citta, Verona
1973 - Galerie T, Amsterdam
1974 - Galerie Schottinring, Vienna
1974 - Galerie Jacomo-Sontiveri, Paris
1974 - Marlborough Gallery, Rome
1974 - Galleria L'Approdo, Turin
1974 - Galleria Rondanini, Rome
1974 - Santiveri Gallery, Paris
1975 - Galleria La Polena, Genova
1975 - Jacques Damase Gallery, Brussels
1975 - Neue Galerie, Linz
1975 - Galerie Modulo, Porto
1975 - La Pitture Inglese Oggi, Ciak Gallery, Rome
1976 - For John Constable, Tate Gallery, London
1976 - Galleria Morone, Milan
1977 - Waddington and Tooth Galleries, London
1977 - Annual Show, Hayward Gallery, London
1977 - Jubilee Exhibition, Royal Academy, London
1978 - Festival Gallery, Bath
1979 - Bernard Jacobson Ltd, London
1979 - The Museum of Drawers, Kunstmuseum, Bern
1979 - The Deck of Cards, J.P.L. Fine Arts, London
1979 - 20 C. British Art, Middlesborough Art Gallery
1980 - Gallery Artists, Bernard Jacobson Ltd., London
1980 - Kelpra Studio - The Rose and Chris Prater Exhibition, Tate Gallery London
1980 - Aronson Gallery, Atlanta
1981 - Jacobson/Hochman Gallery, New York
1981 - Salty Le Gallais Gallery, Jersey, Channel Islands
1981 - Group IV, Waddington Galleries, London
1981 - Recent Drawing, Jacobson Hochman Gallery, New York
1982 - Drawing - New Directions, Summit Art Gallery, Summit, USA
1982 - Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Los Angeles
1983 - The Granada Collection, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1983 - The London Suite (Prints), Icon Art Gallery, Birmingham
1984 - Home and Abroad, Arts Council Exhibition
1984 - The Serpentine Gallery, London
1984 - Art Within Reach, Icon Gallery, Brimingham
1985 - Twenty Five Years, Annely Juda, London
1985 - Fine Arts Gallery, U.C. Irvine, California
1988 - Painting at the Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Gallery, London
1988 - Corsham - A Celebration, Michael Parkin Gallery, London
1991 - The Presence of Painting, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; touring to Hatton Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne
1991 - Not Pop, What the others were doing. Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
1992 - The New Patrons, Twentieth Century Art from Corporate Collections, Christie's London
1992 - Three Artists Three Decades, Robyn Denny, John Hoyland, Gwyther Irwin, Redfer, London
1992 - Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2004 - Hirschl Contemporary Art, London
2005 - Elements of Abstraction: Space, Line & Interval in British Art, Southampton City Art Gallery
Select Artwork
Stencil Painting A - 1957
Go five - 1957
Treen 3 - 1958
Out-Line 1 - 1962
Haze - 1970
A View - 1972
Dreams - 1972, Screenprint
Light of the World Suite A - 1970, Screenprint
Graffiti 1 - 1975-1976, Oil on canvas
Quotes
Publications
The Art of Robyn Denny - by David Alan Mellor, Black Dog (July 1, 2000)
Quick Facts
Robyn Denny is one of a legendary group who transformed British art in the late 1950s
During the 1960s he developed a range of work which explores both space and modes of perception.
