Purple Shape in Blue : 1964

Patrick Heron 1920-1999

T00711 Purple Shape in Blue 1964

Inscr. ‘Patrick Heron Purple Shape in Blue 1964 52 x 48’ on back of canvas.
Canvas, 51¾ x 47½ (131.5 x 121).
Purchased from the Waddington Galleries (Grant-in-Aid) 1964.
Exh: Waddington Galleries, November–December 1964 (7).

The artist wrote (26 March 1965) that T00711 was painted in August 1964 and was ‘really a throw-back to 1959–61’. He explained that it was unlike any of the other pictures he had painted recently, being ‘softer and fuzzier in touch ... It is atmospheric and recessive by contrast with all my other recent works, in which I have been moving consistently away from softness in area-handling (i.e. brushwork) towards crispness and smoothness and a harder flatness ... Actually I did not “design” or “draw” or even consciously premeditate the shape ... What happened was that I allowed the blue ground to slowly eat into the purple area (from the outside).’

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1964–1965, London 1966.