Peter Lanyon 1918 - 1964

Peter Lanyon was born in 1918 in St Ives. Encouraged to paint by Adrian Stokes, he studied briefly at the Euston Rd School in 1938 and in 1939 he met Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo and received painting lessons from Nicholson at this time. Returning to Cornwall from wartime service in the RAF he became a founder member of the Penwith Society of Arts. He taught at Bath Academy of Art 1950-57 and ran an art school at St Peter Loft, St Ives with Terry Frost between 1957-60. Peter Lanyon died in a gliding accident in Somerset in 1964.

works in the collection - 2

PAC/004

Lanyon was one of a group of painters who took their inspiration from the English landscape which included Ivon Hitchins, John Wells and Terry Frost. Box Construction represents an early experiment with form, colour and materials that Lanyon would go on to develop throughout his career.

Box Construction, 1939 - 40 (?)


PAC/068

A student of Gabo and Nicholson in the 1940s, Lanyon applied their Constructivist ideas to his abstract landscape images. In an attempt to gain new perspectives Lanyon took up gliding in 1959 - an experience that informed a series of paintings based upon his experiences of flying over the Cornish coastline.

Heather Coast, 1963