| 
| 
|
| Blue Nude | Dancers |
1925 - 1998
Born in Lavenham, Suffolk. After serving in the war in the Suffolk Regiment, he studied at Camberwell School of Art (1948-52) under John Minton. A semi-abstract painter, his early work is characterised by succulently coloured oils of neo-romantic landscape in which ordinary topographic features were invested with the potency of the independent symbol. He was greatly influenced by the early work of Roger Hilton, Alan Reynolds, Keith Vaughan. In the 1950s, he developed from figuration to abstraction. He said that any titles on his pictures were ‘meant to be interpreted as poetry - to engender a state of mind rather than describe exactly what the particular picture is’. He was influenced by European abstractionists, by English poets such as Gerald Manley-Hopkins and Thomas Hardy and also the work of James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and Dylan Thomas.
His later work featured linear structure and patterns reminiscent of Vieira da Silva’s linear labyrinths. In these gouache studies on paper Durrant uses a metal implement to sweep clear, broad strokes out of wet paint – recalling the juicy, hectic, packed calligraphy of Riopelle. More recent compositions use crisp, interlocking abstract shapes. Roy Turner Durrant ran Cambridge’s respected Heffer Gallery from 1963 to 1976. Towards the end of his life, he lived as a recluse in Cambridge. A love of the East Anglian countryside is a recurring theme throughout his work.
His work is included in public collections including: Imperial War Museum; Bradford City Art Gallery; Kettles Yard, Cambridge; Balliol College, Oxford.
Exhibitions Include:
Fame and Promise, Leicester Galleries; Cromwell Gallery; Beaux Arts Gallery; Kensington Art Gallery; Royal Academy; Belgrave Gallery; Free Painters and Sculptors; Guildhall, Lavenham; Loggia Gallery; Gallery of British Art, Lausanne