Peter Lanyon
1918–1964
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George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a Cornish painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction. Lanyon was one of the most important artists to emerge in post-war Britain. Despite his early death at the age of forty-six he achieved a body of work that is amongst the most original and important reappraisals of modernism in painting to be found anywhere. Combining abstract values with radical ideas about landscape and the figure, Lanyon navigated a course from Constructivism through Abstract Expressionism to a style close to Pop. He also made constructions, pottery and collage.
Lanyon took up gliding as a pastime and used the resulting experience extensively in his paintings. He died in Taunton, Somerset, as the result of injuries received in a gliding accident and is buried in St. Uny's Church, Lelant.
In September 2010 Peter Lanyon’s work was honoured with a large-scale retrospective exhibition: Peter Lanyon 9 October 2010 – 23 January 2011 at Tate St Ives. Curated by Chris Stephens, Head of Displays and Curator of Modern British Art at Tate Britain, it was the first thorough museum retrospective for almost forty years. In 2015 Lanyon's Gliding Paintings were shown as a set in the Soaring Flight exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, London.
In 2018 the catalogue raisonné of Peter’s oil paintings and three-dimensional works was published by Modern Art Press, after a decades work by Toby Treves.
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Read full Wikipedia entryArtworks
Peter Lanyon Porthleven
1951
Peter Lanyon Wreck
1963
Peter Lanyon Lost Mine
1959
Peter Lanyon Thermal
1960
Peter Lanyon Drawing for ‘Orpheus’. Verso: Figure Drawing
1960, c.1960
Peter Lanyon Coast
1953
Peter Lanyon Headland
1948
Peter Lanyon Zennor Storm
1958
Film and audio
Podcast
Walks of art: Emma Gannon on Barbara Hepworth and St Ives
Discover a place known for its pottery, boats, beaches and beatniks
TateShots
Peter Lanyon: Rethinking Landscape
Explore the work of this St Ives artist who rethought the tradition of landscape painting
Features
Art Term
Penwith Society of Arts
Penwith Society of Arts is an artists' society formed in 1948 at St Ives, Cornwall, Britain by artists working in ...
Art Term
St Ives School
Although they did not see themselves as part of a group or school, the term St Ives School is often ...
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Toby Treves on Peter Lanyon
In 1959 Peter Lanyon (1918–1964) learned to fly a glider, an activity that transformed his understanding of the air ...
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Cornwall inside out: Peter Lanyon
He was the only native-born Cornishman of the post-war St Ives group of artists, and his work reflected the local ...
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For a few extraordinary years in the post-war era, the small town of St Ives was an art centre of ...
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