Graham Sutherland (1975)

Graham Sutherland has been widely acknowledged as the greatest English painter since William Turner and John Constable. His work has been a focus of the critical acclaim that has accompanied the resurgence of the British art over the past three decades to a position of international prominence. This volume concerns itself with the most durable aspects of Sutherland’s achievement: the sensitivity to natural subjects that underlies half a century of creative investigation. The book offers the most thorough survey to date of Sutherland’s development as a painter, including studies and notebooks as well as full-colour illustrations of oils and watercolours.

The illustrations reveal the full diversity of stylistic elements from the earlier landscapes, which result from the idealized innocence of the Neoromantics to the physical terror of natural forms and abstract geometry. Perception and imagination, sensual delight and contemplative meditation and defiance are the rare correlatives of his refusal to conform to any artificial view of reality.

The text of the monograph is by Vera Valentini, director of the Galleria d’arte Moderna in Bologna and noted monograph Giorgio Morandi. His text constitutes a sensitive and perceptive assessment of a great modern artist. An extensive reference section contains biographical outline, lists of exhibitions, and a selected bibliography.