Derrick Greaves: Art Worlds

A composite image of three Derrick Greaves works. From left to right. Hokusai, Towards A Walled Garden 2, and Blossom III.

Hokusai has a brown background. Two thin pink lines split the artwork into thirds. In the central third, there are black lilypad shapes, then one orange and one red one. In the other two sections, the lilypads are all red. There are also flat, red cone shapes.

Towards A Walled Garden 2 depicts a garden wall. It looks like a mosaic, with thick black lines between the green, blue and purple coloured bricks. There are small red flowers over the wall, also outlined in black. A bright blue sky shows above the wall.

Blossom III has a green background. A black tree trunk extends up from the centre of the image, meeting a mass of pink blossom about half way that covers the top half of the image. The tree fades to a grey colour within the blossom. a small patch of yellow fills the bottom right quarter of the image, cut off by the tree trunk.

L-R: Derrick Greaves, Hokusai, 1994; Derrick Greaves, Towards A Walled Garden 2, 2021; Derrick Greaves, Blossom III, 2020 © Estate of Derrick Greaves, courtesy of James Hyman Gallery, London

Derrick Greaves (1927 – 2022) grew up in Sheffield and his early experiences here had a significant impact on the development of his painting. This new exhibition at the Graves Gallery is the first retrospective of his work since his death, bringing together a selection of paintings, drawings and sketchbooks from a career spanning eight decades.

Derrick Greaves is one of the most acclaimed British painters of the last half century. He initially gained recognition in the 1950s, when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale along with the other 'Kitchen-Sink' painters with whom he was associated. His work has developed from the social realism of the 1950s to a more heraldic style that paralleled 1960s Pop Art, from an imagery based on nature and observable fact to more studio-bound imaginative constructs

Art Worlds explores the sources of inspiration in Greaves’ work and presents 20 paintings made between 1942 and 2021, alongside drawings, photographs and more. Curated in collaboration with James Hyman and the artist’s estate, the exhibition is structured around four themes – Home Life, The World of the Studio, The Art of the Past and The Natural World.

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