Turner Contemporary exhibits 50 years of Patrick Heron’s giant colourful abstracts, spanning 1943–96. The exhibition explores the late RA’s contribution to postwar abstraction and his preoccupation with colour. In 1962 Heron claimed that colour was both the “subject and the means; the form and the content; the image and the meaning, in my painting today”. Heron’s art is a visual sensation that directly responds to the light, colour and shape of everyday forms. In the galleries, Heron’s work is displayed in a succession of spaces and juxtapositions, rather than chronologically, encouraging a new understanding of his creative processes. Standing in front of Heron’s rich aesthetic vibrancy, we in turn participate in his own joyous act of looking.
Patrick Heron: His Painting Now. Turner Contemporary, Margate, 19 October 2018 – 6 January 2019.
