Paul Huxley - by Jeremy Lewison (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Paul Huxley RA (b.1938) has enjoyed a distinguished career both as a painter and a teacher. Huxley's fascinating artistic life, expertly surveyed by Jeremy Lewison, is at last given the attention that it deserves in this, the first monograph on the artist.

Huxley's early interest in abstraction chimed with the dynamism that pulsed through London's art scene in the 1960s. Recognised as a new talent by pioneering curator Bryan Robertson, Huxley enjoyed early success in exhibitions including The New Generation, which opened at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1964. Building from this positive critical reception, and immersing himself in the vibrant artistic communities of London and New York, Huxley built a career characterised by an instinct to push boundaries and find new ways to advance the language of abstract painting. Constantly evolving, the artist's rich body of work, highlights of which are presented here, stands as testament to a life committed to tirelessly investigating and challenging form, space and colour.

Review Quotes

'Jeremy Lewison's Paul Huxley encompasses the many dimensions of the more than six decades of pioneering artist Paul Huxley, his large-scale abstract paintings and his unique language of shapes and gestures.' - Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of Serpentine, London

'This is a much needed survey of the career (to date) of one of the most rigorous and underrated of British abstract painters. Paul Huxley has always asked questions in his art but has never lost his conviction that modernism matters. Jeremy Lewison gives an incisive account of Huxley's highly evolved and disciplined work as both artist and teacher, giving cultural, philosophical and psychoanalytical context as well as impressive formal analysis of 60 years of painting and drawing that is appropriately rigorous but eminently readable.' - Tim Marlow, Director and Chief Executive of the Design Museum

About the Author

Jeremy Lewison was formerly Director of Collections at Tate. Since 2002, he has been an independent curator, writer, critic and lecturer, with a specialism in modern and contemporary art.

Dr Hester R. Westley is the Project Director for Artist's Lives, National Life Stories at the British Library. Hester's recent research interests focus on intersectional histories of self-narration, and she has published on both her artist-interviewees' work as well as the methodology of an artist's life story.