Prunella Clough

Prunella Clough, one of the most important pioneers of British abstract art of the twentieth century, died on Boxing Day 1999, aged 80. She always remained both elusive and extremely modest about herself and her considerable achievements.

Anything that the eye or the mind’s eye sees with intensity and excitement will do for a start. A gasometer is as good as a garden, probably better – Prunella Clough

Prunella Clough is widely appreciated as one of the most significant British artists of the post war period. Clough’s work is distinctive and private and yet always responsive to what was going on around her – artistically and visually. As Mel Gooding states in his catalogue introduction to the show “Prunella Clough seemed incapable of making an image that was not remarkable for its utter singularity”.

Her muted and narrow palette in these works is contrasted by her later abstract works often using bright colours and sometimes found objects. They reveal her continual and personal preoccupation with formal qualities – composition, colour and texture – and her delight in the edginess and abstraction of everyday objects and experiences.

Prunella Clough was born in London in 1919 – she studied at Chelsea School of Art and during the war worked as a draughtsman of maps and charts. She was a highly influential artist and teacher to the post-war generation. In 1999 three months before her death she won the prestigious Jerwood painting prize.