Robyn Denny | Newlyn Art Gallery

About

Robyn Denny (1930-2014) was one of an internationally acclaimed group who transformed British art in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, leading it into the international mainstream. His resolutely urban abstract paintings on a large scale, captured the cool, modernising mood of the time.

Graduating from RCA in 1957, within a decade he was enjoying considerable international success, alongside his contemporaries Howard Hodgkin, Bridget Riley, Peter Blake and David Hockney. In 1966, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale with Anthony Caro, Bernard Cohen, Harold Cohen and Richard Smith and at the time of his 1973 Tate retrospective he was the youngest artist to be so honoured. This exhibition is a celebration of the work of an artist key to British abstraction, who kept his eye firmly on America and his London contemporaries.

This exhibition offers an in depth understanding of the evolution of his work over five decades and an exploration of the importance and contemporary relevance of his work. Importantly, the exhibition will draw attention to later works, dating from the early 1980s and beyond, that have only rarely been presented publicly before.