An exhibition of works by British artist George Dannatt (1915 – 2009) offering a rare glimpse into his connection with nature, and remarkable mastery of colour, texture, and balance.

Dannatt, was born in Blackheath, London, and became an outstanding and inspirational figure in the story of the later St Ives School. He represented a rare breed of cultural polymath: musician, critic, practising artist, connoisseur, and collector of modern art. He also belonged to a small group of patron collectors who practised what they preached. Dannatt’s career as an artist spanned more than 50 years producing a solid oeuvre of abstract painting inspired by, and in concert with, the St Ives Modernists whose work he so admired.

An artist in all media, this exhibition represents a selection of artworks which characterises Dannatt’s life-long interest in the geometry of nature, together with his virtuosity with colour, texture, tone, and balance, which are the hallmarks of his style. He was a respected member of a group of artists impressed by the qualities of the English countryside and coastline, including Terry Frost, John Wells, Bryan Winter, and Dennis Mitchell, all of whom were alive to the unique visual appeal of the south and west of England.

Working from his studio in Wiltshire and travelling frequently among the villages, hills, and coastline of the region, Dannatt would take home pencil sketches of field systems, cliffs, and beaches, with notes on colours to be used and shapes to be investigated. He favoured a small scale in which he fashioned thoughtful abstractions of landscape themes reflecting the immediacy of visual environment observed, glimpsed, or framed by the environs of the home that he acquired with his wife Ann in the 1950’s.

In the 1980’s the Dannatt’s took the decision to establish a legal framework ‘for the purposes of advancing the education of the public in the visual arts’ and in so doing to distribute the benefits of their activities to others. On its establishment in 1986, the George Dannatt Trust became the legal guardian of the Collection which extended to European artists in both figurative and abstract art, including Picasso, Arp, Soulages, Heliôn and Chillida. A significant proportion of the Dannatt’s collections, art library and archive were donated to Pallant House Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery between 2011 and 2022.

The exhibition was in association with Modern Contemporary Art.