London – The School of London – the art movement in the second half of the 20th century that included, among others, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney – famously embraced figurative art at a time when Abstraction dominated. Yet, over that same period many other artists in the city were working in the abstract style and producing great and memorable art; painters such as John Hoyland, Howard Hodgkin, Frank Bowling and Bridget Riley who might be considered as ‘The Second London School’. A new online-only sale at Bonhams from April 17-27 2023, to be called London Colour, will celebrate these artists and their work.
Ingram Reid, Bonhams Head of Sale for British and Irish Modern Art, who is curating London Colour, explained the background to the sale. “From the 1950s to the present day, artists with strong London connections – either working, teaching or studying in the city –have produced an incredibly rich vein of abstract art. The early post-war decades saw an unprecedented new wave of British painting dedicated to absolute Abstraction and since then, British abstract artists have continued to produce masterworks which are among the most engaging of their type.”
Already consigned is a fine collection of paintings by John Hoyland (1934-2011) and works by Gillian Ayres (1930-2018), Richard Smith (1931-2016), Albert Irvin (1922-2015), Adrian Heath (1920-2015), Ralph Rumney (1934-2002) and Robyn Denny (1930-2014).
