George Dannatt

Small Black Abstract (Xanadu)

1963

George Dannatt’s career as a painter and sculptor ended with the artist’s death in 2009 at the age of 94. 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. 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. His life-long interest in the geometry of nature, together with his virtuosity with colour, texture, tone and balance, are hallmarks of his style. Viewers will notice the very precise geometry in this work which is composed of strong horizontal, vertical and curvilinear elements which interconnect. Dannatt’s life-long involvement in the landscape resulted in an important contribution to the Wessex landscape school – a distinctive and perhaps unique artistic formation that belongs to the established history of modern British art.