John Hoyland

JOHN HOYLAND  British, 1934-2011

A painter and printmaker of prodigious creative energy and imagination, John Hoyland was widely recognised as one of the greatest abstract artists of his time. From the beginning of his career, John Hoyland unwaveringly championed the centrality of abstraction to the living history of modernist art.

John Hoyland first studied at the Sheffield College of Art in 1946 and continued at the Royal Academy Schools, London from 1956 to 1960.

From 1967 John Hoyland spent increasing amounts of time in America, associating with such artists as Rothko, Newman and Motherwell, but in the Seventies, he returned to settle in England. He has travelled widely in Europe and North and South America and was Artist-in-Residence at the Studio School in New York and at Melbourne University, Australia in 1979.

Influenced by Hans Hofmann, his work is abstract, with vibrant blocks of colour poured, splattered, brushed and applied with a palette knife.

John Hoyland held his first one-man show in 1964 at the Marlborough Gallery, London, with subsequent exhibitions in London at the Waddington Galleries, Serpentine Gallery, Flowers East and a major exhibition at the Whitechapel in 1967.

John Hoyland developed a strong attachment to America, from the late 1960s making visits to New York and setting studio there and in 1972 becoming Charles A Dana Professor of Fine Arts, Colgate University, Hamilton.

John Hoyland became an influential teacher at Hornsey College of Art, Croydon School of Art, Chelsea School of Art, St Martin’s, the Royal Academy Schools and the Slade.

John Hoyland won a number of prizes, including Calouste Gulbenkian Purchase Award in 1963; first prize at John Moores Exhibition in 1982; joint first prize in Korn Ferry International Award Exhibition in 1986; and in the following year first prize in the Athena Art Awards Exhibition.

John Hoyland was elected RA in 1991. 

Selected solo exhibitions:

1964 John Hoyland, Marlborough New London Gallery, London

1965 John Hoyland, Chelsea School of Art, London

1967 John Hoyland, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

1967 John Hoyland, Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Munich

1967 John Hoyland, Robert Elkon Gallery, New York, USA

1967 John Hoyland, Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1967 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1967 John Hoyland, Waddington Fine Art, Montreal, Canada

1968 John Hoyland, Robert Elkon Gallery, New York, USA

1968 John Hoyland, Waddington Fine Art, Montreal, Canada

1969 John Hoyland, André Emerich Gallery, New York, USA

1969 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1969 John Hoyland, Leslie Waddington Prints, London

1970 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1970 John Hoyland, André Emerich Gallery, New York, USA

1970 Galleria dell’Ariete, Milan, Italy

1971 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1971 John Hoyland, André Emerich Gallery, New York, USA

1971 John Hoyland, Waddington Fine Art, Montreal, Canada

1973 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1973 John Hoyland, Galleria l’Approdo, Turin, Italy

1974 John Hoyland, Studio La Cittá, Verona, Italy

1974 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1974 John Hoyland, Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1975 John Hoyland, Kingspitcher Contemporary Art Gallery, Pittsburgh, USA

1975 John Hoyland, Galleria E, Bolzano, Italy

1975 John Hoyland, Rubiner Gallery, Detroit, Michigan, USA

1975 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1975 John Hoyland, Waddington Fine Art, Montreal

1976 John Hoyland, Paintings 1966-68, Waddington Galleries, London

1976 John Hoyland, Galleria La Bertesca, Milan, Genoa and Turin, Italy

1976 John Hoyland, Studio La Cittá, Verona, Italy

1976-77 John Hoyland, Galeria Modulo, Lisbon, Portugal

1978 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, Montreal, Canada

1978 John Hoyland, Waddington and Tooth Galleries, New York, USA

1979 John Hoyland, André Emerich Gallery, New York, USA

1979 John Hoyland, Waddington Fine Art, Toronto, Canada

1979 John Hoyland, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, New York, USA

1979 John Hoyland, Art Contact, Coconut Grove, Florida, USA

1979-80 John Hoyland, Serpentine Gallery, London, touring to Birmingham City Art Gallery, and Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield

1980 John Hoyland, University Gallery, University of Melbourne, touring to Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, and Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, Australia

1980 John Hoyland, Galerie von Braunbehrens, Munich, Germany

1980 John Hoyland, Galerie Krammer, Hamburg, Germany

1981 John Hoyland, Gump’s Gallery, San Francisco, USA

1981 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1982 John Hoyland, Jacobson/Hochman Gallery, New York, USA

1982 John Hoyland, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1982 John Hoyland, Compass Gallery, Glasgow

1983 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1983 John Hoyland, Waddington Graphics, London

1983-84 John Hoyland, Hokin/Kaufman Gallery, Chicago, USA

1984 John Hoyland, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester

1985 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1986 John Hoyland, Waddington & Shiell Galleries, Toronto, Canada

1987 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1987 John Hoyland, Oxford Gallery, Oxford

1987 John Hoyland, Lever/Meyerson Gallery, New York, USA

1988 John Hoyland, Erika Meyerovich Gallery, San Francisco, USA

1988 John Hoyland, Edward Thorden Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden

1990 John Hoyland, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London

1990 John Hoyland, Waddington Galleries, London

1991 John Hoyland, Eva Cohon Gallery, Chicago, USA

1992 John Hoyland, Galerie Josine Bokhoven, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1992 John Hoyland, Graham Modern Gallery, New York, USA

1994 John Hoyland, Annendale Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1994 John Hoyland, CCA Gallery, London

1995 John Hoyland, Theo Waddington, London

2006 John Hoyland, Nevill Keating Pictures, London

2006 John Hoyland, Lemon Street Gallery, London