Artist profile
Alan Reynolds
Alan Reynolds was an artist whose career falls into two halves: the landscape and abstract painter of the 1950s and 1960s, and the constructive artist of the last 45 years of his life. The quest for equilibrium was at the centre of Alan’s art, ever since he emerged from the Royal College of Art in 1953. Alan’s work, from that time, which earned him early recognition and success, was influenced by the landscape of his native Suffolk and the hop gardens and orchards of his adoptive Kent. From 1968 onwards, depiction was firmly set aside in favour of the ‘concrete’ image. For more than 45 years, Alan worked entirely as a concrete artist, making tonal modular drawings and constructed white reliefs. He had growing success, which led to international exhibitions including a retrospective at the Städtische Galerie im Schloss, Wolfsburg and the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen in 1996. Apart from his home country, he was particularly admired in France and Germany.
Biography
- 1926
- Born in Newmarket, Suffolk
- 1948–52
- Woolwich Polytechnic School of Art
- 1952–53
- Awarded scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London and received medal for painting in his first year
- 1954–61
- Taught drawing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London
- 1955
- International prize at Giovani Pittori, Rome
- 1957
- Married Vona Darby
- 1958
- Painted landscape until 1958
- 1961
- Started teaching painting at St. Martin's School of Art, London
- 1965
- CoID Award
- 1967
- Arts Council Purchase Award
- 1985
- Appointed Senior Lecturer of painting at St. Martin's School of Art, London
- 1990
- Retired from lecturing
- 1990–2014
- Lived and worked in Kent
Selected exhibitions
- 2018
- Relief, Zeichnungen, Druck, Galerie Wack, Kaiserslautern
- 2011
- Recent Reliefs & Drawings, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
- 2009
- Alan Reynolds – le cerclage du carré, Galerie Gimpel & Müller, Paris
- 2006
- Circling the Square, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
- 2003
- Retrospective, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
- 1996
- Retrospective, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany