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Adrian Heath

Inscribed versopainted circa 1956

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Brown, Grey with Orange & Yellow conveys a collision of robust crystalline forms which fuse and lock in to one another. Configured of thick planes of earthen hued oil this non-referential painting is intended to be an object in its own right.

Heath published an essay Abstract Art: Its Origins and Meaning, 1953, simultaneously he started creating a series of constructions. Brown, Grey with Orange & Yellow is a painting made whilst Heath was working on developing these constructions which explains the works physical robustness. Heath was to become the main link between the St Ives School and the London based Constructionists (Claude Rogers, Mary and Kenneth Martin, Victor Pasmore and Anthony Hill).

In 1951 Heath organised Abstract Paintings, Sculptures, Mobiles at his flat, no. 22 Fitzroy Square with his avant-garde cohorts. They published a form of manifesto, Broadsheet No. 1 Devoted to Abstract Art. A less lavish second edition was produced for the follow up exhibition in 1952. Much like the Bauhaus model, these shows would include modern design, architectural motifs, reliefs and mobiles hanging alongside paintings. The final show Nine Abstract Artists, also organised by Heath, was held at Redfern Galleries in January 1955.