john hoyland

When an Abstract artist says that he is meaningful or somneone says he is  then most of that is meaningless for abstract art is solely that that pleases a certain inner human eye that links with the markings on the paintings, there are few great innovative modern abstract painters but lots of pleasing ones . Much of it is what passes for painting for yuppy type rooms , pleasing but not important.
John Hoyland RA (12 October 1934 – 31 July 2011) was a London-based British artist. He was one of the country's leadingabstract painters.

John Hoyland was born on 12 October 1934, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, to a working-class family, and educated at Sheffield School of Art and Crafts within the junior art department (1946-51) before progressing to Sheffield School of Art and Crafts proper (1951-56),and the Royal Academy Schools, London (1956-60) where Sir Charles Wheeler, the then President of the Royal Academy famously ordered that Hoyland's paintings – all abstracts – be removed from the walls of the Diploma Galleries. It was only the intervention of Peter Greenham, Acting Keeper of the Schools, that saved the day when he reminded Sir Charles Wheeler that Hoyland also painted landscapes – evidence that he could 'paint properly'.

In 1953 Hoyland went abroad for the first time, hitch-hiking with a friend to the South of France. After the bleakness of Sheffield it was a revelation.

The 1960s were a crucial decade for Hoyland; it was in these years that he found his voice as an artist.
Hoyland's first solo exhibition was held at the Marlborough New London Gallery in 1964 and his first solo museum show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1967, curated by Bryan Robertson. In the 1960s, Hoyland's work was characterised by simple shapes, high-key colour and a flat picture surface. In the 1970s his paintings became more textured. He exhibited at the Waddington Galleries, London throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1960s and 1970s, he showed his paintings in New York City with the Robert Elkon Gallery and the André Emmerich Gallery. His paintings are closely aligned with Post-Painterly Abstraction, Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Hoyland disliked the "abstract" painter label, describing himself simply as "a painter".

Retrospectives of his paintings have been held at the Serpentine Gallery (1979), the Royal Academy (1999) and Tate St Ives (2006). He won the 1982 John Moores Painting Prize.

His works are held in many public and private collections including the Tate. In September 2010, Hoyland and five other British artists including Howard Hodgkin, John Walker,Ian Stephenson, Patrick Caulfield and R.B. Kitaj were included in an exhibition entitled The Independent Eye: Contemporary British Art From the Collection of Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie, at the Yale Center for British Art.

He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1991 and was appointed Professor of the Royal Academy Schools in 1999
 The National Portrait Gallery holds portraits of the artist in its collection.

Hoyland died 31 July 2011 aged 76, of complications following heart surgery undertaken in 2008. He was survived by his wife Beverley Heath Hoyland and his son Jeremy, from his first marriage to Airi Karakainen. 

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John Hoyland was born on 12 October 1934, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, to a working-class family, and educated at Sheffield School of Art and Crafts within the junior art department (1946-51) before progressing to Sheffield School of Art and Crafts proper (1951-56), and the Royal Academy Schools, London (1956-60) where Sir Charles Wheeler, the then President of the Royal Academy famously ordered that Hoyland's paintings – all abstracts – be removed from the walls of the Diploma Galleries. It was only the intervention of Peter Greenham, Acting Keeper of the Schools, that saved the day when he reminded Sir Charles Wheeler that Hoyland also painted landscapes – evidence that he could 'paint properly'.

In 1953 Hoyland went abroad for the first time, hitch-hiking with a friend to the South of France. After the bleakness of Sheffield it was a revelation.

The 1960s were a crucial decade for Hoyland; it was in these years that he found his voice as an artist. Hoyland's first solo exhibition was held at the Marlborough New London Gallery in 1964 and his first solo museum show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1967, curated by Bryan Robertson. In the 1960s, Hoyland's work was characterised by simple shapes, high-key colour and a flat picture surface. In the 1970s his paintings became more textured. He exhibited at the Waddington Galleries, London throughout the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1960s and 1970s, he showed his paintings in New York City with the Robert Elkon Gallery and the André Emmerich Gallery. His paintings are closely aligned with Post-Painterly Abstraction, Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction. Hoyland disliked the "abstract" painter label, describing himself simply as "a painter".But in rreality what did he paint? =abstraction 

Retrospectives of his paintings have been held at the Serpentine Gallery (1979), the Royal Academy (1999) and Tate St Ives (2006). He won the 1982 John Moores Painting Prize.^[12]

His works are held in many public and private collections including the Tate.In September 2010, Hoyland and five other British artists including Howard Hodgkin, John Walker,Ian Stephenson, Patrick Caulfield and R.B. Kitaj were included in an exhibition entitled The Independent Eye: Contemporary British Art From the Collection of Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie, at the Yale Center for British Art.

He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1991 and was appointed Professor of the Royal Academy Schools in 1999.The National Portrait Gallery holds portraits of the artist in its collection.

Hoyland died 31 July 2011 aged 76, of complications following heart surgery undertaken in 2008. He was survived by his wife Beverley Heath Hoyland and his son Jeremy, from his first marriage to Airi Karakainen.