Paint
Peter Ha
igh
Paisnel Gallery
ings 8
4 – 94
All paintings are framed and available for sale on receipt of this catalogue. Please contact the gallery for availability. Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm Saturdays and late viewings by arrangement.
igh Peter Ha
Paint
ings 8
4 – 94
Paisnel Gallery 9 Bury Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6AB telephone:
020 7930 9293 email: info@paisnelgallery.co.uk website: www.paisnelgallery.co.uk
Following our highly successful exhibition of paintings by Peter Haigh in 2009, Paisnel Gallery is delighted to present a second opportunity to view unseen works from the artist’s studio. Focusing on the last decade of his career, when he was arguably at his most prolific and capable, the thirty paintings in this exhibition are a culmination of his own statement that, ‘every finished picture is a study for the next’. This continuity is visually reflected in Haigh’s consistent exploration of shape and colour, resulting in dynamic structures which exude pictorial presence. In viewing the works, there is the intimate sensation of tapping into the contemplative state of mind in which Haigh was engaged, emulated in his carefully considered, balanced composition and intersecting contours which interlock, layer and frame. These canvases, with their juxtaposition of mellow tones and geometric forms are, after over twenty years, coming into their own. Perfectly suited to contemporary taste they stand up well, with gathering maturity, against the 1980s aversion to ‘traditional’ abstraction. An example of post-synthetic painting, the pieces have a striking simplicity: form and colour are largely freed from their referential constraints and become the subjects themselves. This Modernist impulse seems to draw influence from the ‘Colour Field’ movement in which the significance of these basic, elemental concepts in painting is emphasised. Haigh appears to work with that notion in mind, whilst simultaneously asserting his distinctive stylistic approach. This creates a purity which exemplifies Haigh’s enduring commitment to strive for ultimate perfection in subtly energetic shape, which both underscores his integrity as an artist and highlights the works as sharply aesthetic. Stephen Paisnel
Haigh’s engaging late oils on canvas are calm in mood but strangely potent. His imaginative and varied combinations of colours, tones and geometrical shapes are individualistic, measured, well conceived and thought through.
CAT 1
| May ’84
oil on canvas 24 x 27 ins (61 x 68.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 27 verso
CAT 2
| September ’84
oil on canvas 38½ x 44½ ins (97.8 x 113 cms) signed also signed, dated and numbered 35 verso
CAT 3
| October ’84
oil on canvas 8 x 10 ins (20.3 x 25.4 cms) dated and numbered 60 verso
↓ CAT 4
→
| June ’85
oil on canvas 16 x 20 ins (40.6 x 50.8 cms) signed, dated and numbered 26 verso
CAT 5
| February ’86
oil on canvas 40 x 32 ins (101.6 x 81.3 cms) signed, dated and numbered 61 verso
CAT 6
| June ’86
oil on canvas 32 x 40 ins (81.3 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 17 verso
CAT 7
| January ’87
oil on canvas 36 x 40 ins (91.4 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 51 verso
CAT 8
| August ’87
oil on canvas 36 x 40 ins (91.4 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 27 verso
His work meets George Braque’s criterion that an oil painting should be painted solidly, ‘like a door’.
CAT 9
| December ’88
oil on canvas 40 x 44 ins (101.6 x 111.8 cms) signed, dated and numbered 47 verso
CAT 10
| February ’89
oil on canvas 21 x 24 ins (53.3 x 61 cms) signed, dated and numbered 8 verso
CAT 11
| May ’89
oil on canvas 32 x 40 ins (81.3 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 18 verso
CAT 12
| August ’89
oil on canvas 36 x 48 ins (91.4 x 121.9 cms) signed, dated and numbered 29 verso
CAT 13
| September ’90
oil on canvas 18 x 20 ins (45.7 x 50.8 cms) signed, dated and numbered 53 verso
CAT 14
| October ’91
oil on canvas 36 x 30 ins (91.4 x 76.2 cms) signed, dated and numbered 41 verso
CAT 15
| December ’91
oil on canvas 24 x 27 ins (61 x 68.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 9 verso
CAT 16
| July ’92
oil on canvas 24 x 30 ins (60.7 x 76 cms) signed, dated and numbered 38 verso
Between 1949 and 1955 after using his demobilisation grant to study at Heatherley’s and Goldsmiths, Haigh exhibited regularly with no less than ten London institutions, including Wildenstein, the Redfern, and Roland Browse and Delbanco.
CAT 17
| August ’92
oil on canvas 32 x 40 ins (81.3 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 37 verso
CAT 18
| August ’92
oil on canvas 32 x 40 ins (81.3 x 101.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 48 verso
↑ CAT 19
→
| September ’92
oil on canvas 18 x 16 ins (45.7 x 40.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 51 verso
CAT 20
| June ’93
oil on canvas 24 x 16 ins (61 x 40.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 45 verso
When asked by a friend to describe his late paintings, Peter Haigh replied, ‘Post synthetic geometric abstract cubism with hard edges and soft centres’. This was a sophisticated and witty response, which also happens to be the truth.
CAT 21
| June ’93
oil on canvas 44 x 18 ins (111.8 x 45.7 cms) signed, dated and numbered 42 verso
↓ CAT 22
→
| February ’94
oil on canvas 18 x 16 ins (45.7 x 40.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 9 verso
CAT 23
| May ’94
oil on canvas 42 x 24 ins (106.7 x 61 cms) signed, dated and numbered 24 verso
CAT 24
| March ’94
oil on canvas 18 x 20 ins (45.7 x 50.8 cms) signed, dated and numbered 14 verso
CAT 25
| July ’94
oil on canvas 20 x 16 ins (50.8 x 40.6 cms) signed, dated and numbered 43 verso
CAT 26
| July ’94
oil on canvas 25 x 30 ins (63.5 x 76.2 cms) signed, dated and numbered 35 verso
CAT 27
| July ’94
oil on canvas 20 x 24 ins (50.8 x 61 cms) signed, dated and numbered 48 verso
To focus closely on the interior of any of his triangles, rectangles, quadrilaterals or more complex shapes is to realise that each picture is well constructed from the craftsman’s point of view.
CAT 28
| September ’94
oil on canvas 40 x 32 ins (101.6 x 81.3 cms) signed, dated and numbered 50 verso
↓ CAT 29
→
| September ’94
oil on canvas 24 x 20 ins (61 x 50.8 cms) signed, dated and numbered 57 verso
CAT 30
| October ’94
oil on canvas 40 x 32 ins (101.6 x 81.3 cms) signed, dated and numbered 62 verso
Peter Haigh 1914 – 1994
1914 1929 1931–32 1939 1939–45 1946 1947–50 1952–53 1957 1958 1960 1963 1979 1994
Born 5th October, near Huddersfield, Yorkshire Sold his first painting aged 15 Trained as textile sample dyer In the 1930s he travelled the length and breadth of England, drawing, painting and writing Volunteered to serve in World War II Army war service mainly in the Far East Studied briefly at Heatherleys School of Art under Ian Macnab Goldsmiths School of Art. Here he met Patricia Taylor, his future wife Financed by an art collector, a Director of Shell, to go abroad and paint in Sanary-Sur-Mer on the French Riviera Started working at Savage Framers Married Patricia Taylor Opened up his own frame-making and gilding business in Fulham Daughter Sheila born Retired and began to paint full time again Died December at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital
1949 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
Selected Group Exhibitions Royal Institute of Oil Painters Royal Society of British Artists Leicester Galleries, Wildenstein, Redfern Gallery Leicester Galleries, Wildenstein, Redfern Gallery Leicester Galleries, Redfern Gallery, Roland Browse & Delbanco Leicester Galleries, Beaux Arts Redfern Gallery, Zwemmer Gallery Leicester Galleries
1988 1991 2009
Solo Exhibitions Pride Gallery. (A Retrospective 1949 – 1985) Galeria Ambiente Cero, Valencia, Spain Paisnel Gallery
Peter Haigh 84 – 94 Published in 2015 by Paisnel Gallery isbn
978-0-9931746-0-5
Paisnel Gallery 9 Bury Street St James’s London SW1Y 6AB Telephone: 020 7930 9293 Email: info@paisnelgallery.co.uk www.paisnelgallery.co.uk © Paisnel Gallery Extracts throughout this catalogue are from An Appreciation by Mark Glazebrook published by Paisnel Gallery in May 2009 for inclusion in the exhibition catalogue: Peter Haigh, 1914–1994. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without first seeking the written permission of the copyright holders and of the publisher. Photography: Paul Tucker Photography Design: Alan Ward @ www.axisgraphicdesign.co.uk Print: Albe De Coker, Antwerp
Cover: CAT 11, May ’89 Front endpaper: CAT 16, July ’92 Back endpaper: CAT 20, June ’93
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