‘Private View’ by Bryan Robertson, John Russell and Lord Snowdon
At thirty-one, John Hoyland has already a formidable backlog of original and unusually mature work to his credit, but has exhibited less than most of his contemporaries while enjoying a strong and solid reputation among his fellow artists as a serious thinker – and originator. He has worked consistently and convincingly on a large scale; and like several other young artists on the international scene, tends to work on a series of ideas which then flow into a subsequent development: each phase explored to the hilt with great resourcefulness and invention.
Hoyland’s concern is for the ambiguity which can exist between the figure or motif and its enveloping ground: both invariably stated in terms of strong, resonant colour which cuts out tonality. The play between the shapes themselves, and the tension between the all-over space and those shapes, are dramatic and highly subtle. Hoyland is a true inventor.
Bryan Robertson
© Bryan Robertson, John Russell and Lord Snowdon / Nelson, London, 1965
