Patrick Heron was born in Headingley, Leeds, in 1920. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, between 1937 and 1939. From 1945, Heron wrote as an art critic for The New English Weekly and The New Statesman and Nation. In 1956, he returned to Cornwall where he lived and worked until his death in March 1999. Heron was awarded a CBE in 1977. From 1980 to 1987, he was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery, London. He received Honorary Doctorates from Exeter and Kent Universities, Winchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. Solo exhibitions were held at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1968), the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1972) and the Barbican, London (1985) among others. A major retrospective of Heron's work was organised by the Tate Gallery, London (1998).