John Hoyland 1.7.68 1968 © Estate of John Hoyland. All rights reserved. DACS, London 2023

Biography

Born 1934
Died 2011
Nationality English
Birth place Sheffield, Yorkshire

Born in Sheffield, Hoyland studied at Sheffield School of Art and then at the Royal Academy Schools in London. His early work consisted of landscapes and still lifes, but by the 1960s he was exploring the possibilities of abstraction and colour. His attraction to colour was partly a reaction against the greyness, as he saw it, of his hometown, and partly sparked by his discovery of post-war American abstract painting, which he saw exhibited in London and on several trips to New York. Hoyland was appointed Professor of the Royal Academy Schools in 1999.