Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by TheLongTone (talk | contribs) at 14:26, 23 June 2014 (add). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (May 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Robyn Denny (3 October 1930 – 20 May 2014) was one of a group who transformed British art in the late 1950s, leading it into the international mainstream. He studied at the Royal College of Art in the mid-1950s. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism, American films, popular culture and urban modernity, they recognised abstract painting as their only conceivable route. Denny’s idiosyncratic contemporary voice emerged with the first of the public art projects that have punctuated his career: a mural for the Austin Reed store in Regent Street, London which read ‘Great big biggest wide London’; it epitomised the optimism and confidence of the city at the dawn of the 1960s, and was used as the backdrop for one of the Beatles's first photoshoots in London.

Brief Overview

After national service in the Royal Navy he studied at St Martin’s School of Art (1951-4) and the Royal College of Art (1954-7). After graduating from the Royal College in 1957 he was awarded a scholarship to study in Italy, then taught part-time at Hammersmith School of Art, the Slade School of Art and the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham.

He had a retrospective at the Tate Gallery (1973); ‘Place’ (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 1959); ‘Situation’ (RBA Galleries, London, 1960); ‘London: the New Scene’ (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, Minneapolis and North American tour, 1965); Venice Biennale, 1966 and ‘The Sixties Art Scene in London’ (Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1993). In 1981 Denny moved to Los Angeles, but returned to London in 1986.

Among the paintings Denny created at the Royal College are rudimentary images of heads, indebted to French Tachisme, with dripped and dribbled paint and an occasional discreet patch of fashionable burnt bitumen. These were interspersed with abstract collages and large gestural paintings which display the broad gestures and bold marks of American Abstract Expressionism, exhibited in London in 1956 and 1959. In 1969, Denny organised an exhibition for the Arts Council on the American artist Charles Biederman, who for over 20 years worked exclusively on vividly coloured abstract reliefs. This experience coincided with a new intensity of colour in Denny’s work, shifting from rich, dark harmonies to high, bright contrasts, from a sense of twilight to daylight. In California, Denny's painting again changed radically. In the late 1970s, the acrylic ‘Moonshine’ drawings had incorporated scratch marks, leading eventually to a series of large monochrome paintings where a concentrated cluster of scratching rests, with shockingly disruptive impact, on a thin horizontal: a datum line, never a ‘horizon’. The acrylic surfaces are delicate and subtly modulated, constructed from up to 30 layers of pigment applied until it is intensely rich, absorbing the eye and the attention.

Personal life

Robyn Denny was married to Marjorie Abela and divided his time between his homes in London and France. Denny had three children, Dominic, Lucy and Ned Denny. His youngest son Ned was born during his long-term relationship with the art restoration expert Katharine Reid. He had previously been married to British watercolour artist Anna Teasdale, whom he met at St Martin's School of Art.

Death

Robyn Denny died on 20 May 2014 at his home in France at age 83.

Further reading

• Mellor, David Alan (2002). The Art of Robyn Denny. Black Dog. ISBN 1-901033-33-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
• Thompson, David Robinson (1971). Robyn Denny. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-070623-2.

References

1. ^ Jeff Amos. "Robyn Denny obituary". theguardian.com. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
2. "Robyn Denny". Retrieved 23 July 2014. {{cite web}}: Text "publisher:The Telegraph" ignored (help)
3. Margaret Garlake. "Robyn Denny". The Independant. Retrieved 23June 2014. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
4. "Robyn Denny". The Times. 24 May 2014.

Template:Persondata

• 1930 births
• 2014 deaths
• English artists
• People from Mole Valley (district)
• Disease-related deaths in France
• English expatriates in France