John Hoyland

John Hoyland RA has been called ‘Europe’s answer to Mark Rothko’ and is regarded as the leading abstract artist of his generation. Hoyland’s works are powerful and richly coloured, built up from layers of thick paint. Rivers of colour run over the surface, often focussed on a cell-like central focus to the composition.
Hoyland’s first solo show was held at the Marlborough New London Gallery, London in 1964. Hoyland’s work has also been included in numerous international group exhibitions from 1964, when his work was selected for the New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. More recently he has participated in group exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and the Barbican Gallery, London in 1993, and at Galerie Josine Bokhoven, Amsterdam and the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1994.

Hoyland has received many awards throughout his career, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Purchase Award (1963) and a Peter Stuyvesant travel bursary (1964). He was also a Prize Winner at the John Moore’s Liverpool Exhibition (1964) and later won First Prize (1982). He received an Arts Council purchase award (1979), joint first prize (with William Scott) in the Korn Ferry International (1986) and first prize of the Athena Art Award (1987). In 1998 he won the Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.