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Untitled by Patrick Heron

 Untitled by Patrick Heron
Accession Code: wu0112
Title: Untitled
Date completed: 1973
Medium: Prints
Location Name: Senate House
Location Floor: 2





In 1972 in the introduction to his retrospective exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery Heron said: "Colour has become my most passionate and persistent concern. It is the interaction of colours, the 'meeting lines' or 'frontiers' between colours which are crucial to an apprehension of the actual line of the areas of colour."

This print has a strong red irregular shape, off centre, against a darker red background. Moving in, as it were, from the left is a fretwork pattern of vivid green which seems to be pushing the main shape across the space. Heron is using the power of complimentary colour associations, red and green, as well as the power of contrasting edges of areas of colour, jagged edges against smoother boundaries, to give an illusion of movement.

Heron used the process of screenprinting to produce these prints in order to obtain the vivid colours he wanted. A screenprint is produced by using the basic principle of a stencil, in that it is a method by which paint is brushed over a screen so that the colour penetrates those parts of the screen that have not previously been masked. The screen is made of fine silk stretched on a wooden frame and the design is masked using paper or lacquer.

(Due to copyright restrictions, we are unable to publish images of the artist's work online.)