Patrick Heron

Redfern Gallery, London, where acquired by Robert Hosdell Esq., 22nd July 1957, by whom bequeathed to the present owners in 1990

The following condition report has been compiled by Philip Young Conservation. CONDITION The painting is in a good and sound condition; it has been previously subject to no restoration or other intervention. However, a build up over time of surface dirt and other deposits requires it should be cleaned and this was recently carried out. At the time of the initial examination, the canvas was slack with corner distortions in addition to the sharper inherent distortions present since painting. The original artist's battening frame is pinned into the edges and this was not removed. At the centre of the right side a knot in the timber is slightly distorted but sound. There was a heavy and distorting general layer of nicotine over the paint surface. This was dark and discoloured. At a number of places were seen pin-sized holes through the paint showing white from the primer revealed, and there was a dark abrasion across the lower centre with other minor scuff marks and accretions. The back of the painting is dirty with debris behind stretcher bars. TREATMENT 1. The surface was dusted and the back of the canvas cleaned. 2. Tests were carried out and the nicotine layer and the dirt layers removed by cleaning with very dilute ammonia solution. This required four passes at cleaning, the final two with water only. 3. Losses were consolidated with PVA and filled with Mowiol and gilders whiting. 4. Scuffs and marks were removed or reduced.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In February 1958, an exhibition of Patrick Heron's newest paintings opened at the Redfern Gallery, London. Although he had exhibited there since the beginning of his career, this show was quite unlike anything he had shown before, and would mark a crucial point in Heron's career.

Heron had experimented with pure abstraction as early as 1952, rather under the influence of Nicholas de Stael, but he maintained a figurative foundation to his painting until at least January 1956 when he began to develop a language of strokes of pure colour which moved away from a definite subject. Perhaps a response to the environment of the artist's new home at Eagle's Nest at Zennor in Cornwall and now often known as the 'garden' paintings, the broad subject was often only made clear by the descriptive titles given them, and the idea of an actual physical depiction was clearly subordinate to the artist's exploration of the possibilities of colour itself as the subject. As these works developed, the vertical strokes '...became longer and longer, until in one painting in early 1957 they became so long that the strokes touched top and bottom. Suddenly there were actually seven vertical stripes in one painting, which at the time I actually called Scarlet Verticals: March 1957.' (M.Gayford, 'Looking Is More Interesting Than Doing Anything Else, Ever: An Interview With Patrick Heron', reproduced in D.Sylvester (ed.), Patrick Heron, London 1998, p.29)

As with any period of swiftly developing work, Heron continued to combine a vertical and horizontal element in many of these paintings, but out of this group grew a very distinctive body of paintings, now known generally as the 'stripe' paintings. Relatively few in number, they span just over a year, developing fully in March and April of 1957 and reaching their end with Lux Eterna: May-June 1958 (Private Collection). Almost all use a tall thin upright format as their starting point, and are distinguished by their bold, intuitive and non-referential use of colour, and the free and fast handling of the paint which adds to the immediacy of their impact. Blue Vertical: 1956, a work apparently unpublished and unseen in public since its acquisition in 1957, thus stands at the outset of this group of paintings and demonstrates how Heron developed his aim of creating paintings which did not simply abstract their images from a visual starting point, but that that they should use colour and form in an entirely non-referential way.

Whilst the visual impact of the palette in Blue Vertical: 1956 is remarkable for its lightness and freshness, quite unlike that of most of Heron's contemporaries, closer inspection of the surface sees Heron working in an equally radical way, the strokes of colour not disguising the swiftness of their application, and indeed in many cases the paint is deliberately applied wet on wet to allow it to blend with both the previous layers and adjacent areas. Whilst such a painting appears vibrant and fresh now, it is almost impossible to overstate the effect that such work would have had on contemporaries. One only need look at paintings of the same period by the other leading British abstract painters of the day, such as Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon or William Scott, to see how radically Heron's approach in terms of colour and handling differed from their own, and critics seemed to be at a loss as to how to approach them. Indeed, in a most remarkable move, the gallery simply closed the 1958 exhibition after three days without telling Heron. The news was passed to him by his friend Bryan Wynter, also a Redfern Gallery artist, who promptly resigned from the gallery and moved across Cork Street to the newly established Waddington Galleries. Heron did likewise, forging a relationship that would last for the rest of his career.

Understandably dismayed by their reception, and especially the tendency for reviewers and the public to see landscape references in them (perhaps understandable in the light of the inclusion of suggestive words such as horizon in many of the titles) and deeply involved in the progress of the new painterly language which he was developing, Heron moved away from these paintings, and it was not until over a decade later that their revolutionary elements began to be recognised.

Blue Vertical: 1956 is an important example of the concerns and development in both Heron's own painting and the wider debates on abstraction within avant-garde circles in Britain at this time, and its re-emergence adds to our understanding of both topics.