When we speak of British art the mind tends to go straight to the more serious, historical portraits and landscape paintings. Our artistic tradition, however, has come so far since the days of Turner and Gainsborough. Although Modernism was largely a product of Europe, the style and sensibility translated remarkably well to the UK. To offer a sense of the key figures who brought British Modernism to life, we’ve rounded up our top ten painters to know. Read on for the whistlestop tour…

 

David Hockney

 

David Hockney has been a key figure in British art for most of his life. He’s closely associated with the Modern style which he helped to develop both here abroad. Although he was born in Yorkshire and studied in London, he’s also spent a great deal of time in Los Angeles. Hockney was inspired by the languid beauty of Californian life, painting no shortage of pool scenes and sun-drenched vistas. These are some of his best-loved works. For a time, one of them – ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ – was the most expensive piece by a living artist ever sold at auction. His practice was, however, quite varied. He’s credited as a key member of the Pop-Art movement, elements of which we can see across his oeuvre. He painted in vibrant colours, creating bold compositions as he experimented with space and perspective. There’s a true sense of joy to much of Hockney’s work, with an exploratory spirit of optimism baked in. His practice continues today in ever-evolving forms as he embraces technological advances, finding ways to make digital art which captures his characteristic charm in fresh terms.

 

Leonora Carrington

 

Leonora Carrington was a key figure in the Surrealist movement, bringing a woman’s perspective to a rather male-dominated style. She had quite the bohemian spirit, shirking high-class British society for a freer, more adventurous life in Mexico City. Here she found exceptionally fertile ground for her artistic practice, leaning deeper into the Surrealist style and incorporating new components like Magical Realism. Her work has a ritualistic component to it, with allusions to mythology, alchemy, magic, legend, and a personal system of symbolism. She was interested in the topic of transformation, using these themes to convey the ways in which we can emerge anew. Her paintings often depicted eerie landscapes and fantastical creatures, which she tended to use as foils for her own internal dynamics. Ultimately, she’s credited with creating her own style of Mystical Surrealism which has since informed countless artistic offshoots.

 

Francis Bacon

 

Francis Bacon was an Irish-born painter who infused a raw emotional intensity into his work. His paintings tend to strike a nerve, at times bordering on the unsettling. He experienced a great deal of tragedy over the course of his life, using his artistic practice as a means of exercising his inner demons. His contorted anthropomorphic figures can be read as emotional experiences embodied. These pieces take on existential themes in corporeal forms accented by vivid, modern colours. He was a self-taught artist rooted in his time who was, however, deeply influenced by the work of Old Masters like Velázquez and Rembrandt. We can see elements of traditional techniques and compositions in Bacon’s art – especially his triptychs. What emerges is a body of work that speaks to timeless emotional dynamics set in forms which continue to captivate to this day.

 

Frank Bowling

 

Frank Bowling was born in Guyana but has spent most of his life between London and New York. His work takes on themes of identity and colonisation, linking to his early experiences as a newcomer to the UK. Bowling was, in fact, the first black artist to be elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, representing an overdue step in expanding the cultural frame of reference. He began working in a figurative manner, though would eventually move into a more purely abstract style. His use of colour, however, has remained bold and bright throughout his career. Bowling often takes a multi-media approach to his art, incorporating texture and materiality through screen printing onto a painting, for example. His work carries a richness and a vibrancy which keeps its freshness, even as Bowling continues to work today.

 

Lucian Freud

 

Lucian Freud is a master of portraiture who’s best remembered for his unflinching depictions of the creative characters who made up his inner circle. He came to London as a child by way of Berlin and it’s here that he began to develop his distinctive style. He used thick brushwork to create a tactile sort of impasto, building up a fleshy quality through exploring the materiality of paint as a medium. His portraits are unidealised in every sense of the word, often exuding a sense of the subject’s vulnerability in his attempts to capture the psychology beneath the surface. As the grandson of infamous psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud, this should come as no great surprise. What emerged were portraits not just of the personas, but of the very human complexities which made them tick.

 

Vanessa Bell

 

Vanessa Bell was a key member of the Bloomsbury Group – one of Britain’s most enduringly fascinating creative communities. Her work blurred the lines between the fine and applied arts, spanning from portraits and paintings of domestic scenes to interior design projects. She personally painted the interiors of the Bloomsbury Group’s spiritual home, Charleston Farmhouse. Her whimsical decorative style drenches just about every feature of the house, with bold colours, flattened forms, and schematic motifs igniting the environment. She brought a Modernist sensibility to everyday objects and artworks, alike, playing a key role in bringing Continental avant-garde styles to the UK and finding new ways to fold creativity into every facet of life.

 

Frank Auerbach

 

Frank Auerbach is best remembered for his expressive portraits and urban scenes of London. He was, in fact, born in Germany but forced to flee after losing both parents in the Holocaust. He arrived in London via Kindertransport, finding within himself a deep resilience which would become a major theme in his work. He painted with thick brushstrokes, building up the surface of his paintings to near sculptural effect. Auerbach would often return to the same subjects, finding new ways of interpreting what he saw. Viewed up close, these works often appear abstract – however, a few paces of distance reveal a clear sense of structure and form. This is a key element to the layered, complex quality of his art, which allows for a constant sense of renewal as we discover fresh ways of looking at his paintings.

 

Ben Nicholson

 

Ben Nicholson is recognised as a key Modern artist across the UK – but he’s most closely associated with St Ives, in particular. He was instrumental in building up the area’s creative scene over the course of the Second World War, attracting various artists to his corner of Cornwall. One such character was his second wife, the great sculptor, Barbara Hepworth. Together they explored modes of Modernism with a focus on form and geometry. Early on in Nicholson’s practice he was influenced by Post-Impressionism and Cubism, elements of which crop up throughout his career. He’s best remembered for his own particular style, though. His most famous works are abstract pieces characterised by clean lines, muted tones, and geometric compositions. This style also evolved into ‘white reliefs’ – monochromatic, semi-sculptural pieces which focus on form and spatial harmony. Ultimately, he created a new visual language which helped inspire admiration for a more European avant-garde style across Britain.

 

Eileen Agar

 

Eileen Agar is among the most famous female British painters, and certainly one of the country’s leading Modernists. She was born in Argentina, immigrating to the UK as a child. It was here as well as in Europe that she found her footing as an artist. Her time in Paris with figures like André Breton inspired a fascination with Surrealism, the style with which she would become most closely associated. We also see elements of Cubism in her work – especially in her collaged pieces incorporating found objects. Agar established a playful, dreamlike quality in her art, blending natural motifs, surreal imagery, and pure abstraction. She often did so with a dash of humour which continues to endear her to many.

 

Terry Frost

 

Terry Frost was a major part of the St Ives set, finding inspiration in the sea and sun which coloured his daily life. It was in Cornwall that he found peace and an artistic identity following his service in the Second World War. It was during his time in Germany as a prisoner of war that he started drawing seriously, committing himself to a life of creativity upon his safe return. Frost’s work took on a joyful dynamism, with vibrant colours applied across rhythmic geometric compositions. Through his art he aimed to capture experiences using his own visual language which drew upon European abstract art as well as the Constructivist style. Ultimately Frost combined artistic movements, personal experiences, and the craggy coast he loved into ebullient compositions which hold their emotional charge to this day.

 

 

 

Text by Annabel Colterjohn