Pacific

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Whitehall

Known for his intensely coloured landscapes, Philip Sutton travelled far to paint these, at a time when long-distance travel was comparatively rare. A painting trip to Australia and Fiji in 1963, culminated in his returning to London to exhibit a series of tropical landscapes. This lithograph, made soon after that visit, was in all likelihood inspired by his travels in the South Pacific. While his landscapes were lurid with colour, Sutton also had a pared-down designer’s sensibility and brought this to the design work he carried out in the 1980s, including the design of London Underground posters and postage stamps for the Royal Mail. This lithograph is an example of Sutton’s dexterous understanding of colour and perspective. Its simple lines, its graphic nature and use of just three colours, with a small white rectangle, convey a startlingly visceral sense of looking up at a seagull, perhaps at sunset, in the Pacific. For an artist so acclaimed for his large scale work with a vast palette of colours, this print offers a glimpse at the wide spectrum of his artistic fluency.

Philip Sutton was born in Poole, in Dorset and is known for his large colourful paintings of landscape, flowers and people. He left school at the age of 14, worked in a drawing office and went on to join the RAF during the Second World War. He then took a place at the Slade School of Art in London and on graduating, travelled on scholarship to Europe before returning to London and teaching at the Slade. He began showing work at galleries in the UK and was elected to the London Group, an well-known, artist-led organisation to help promote more exhibitions of artists. In 1977 he was elected to the Royal Academy and his work was featured on a BBC documentary. Sutton also worked as a designer, creating logos, and installations in office buildings as well as posters for London Underground and designs for postage stamps. He continues to paint into his nineties and at the age of 92, opened a gallery in Dorset. He has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the UK

Places

Pacific Ocean

Subjects

abstract, bird

Materials & Techniques

lithograph

Artist

Philip Sutton (1928 - )

Title

Pacific

Date

1966

Medium

Lithograph

Dimensions

height: 56.00 cm, width: 61.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Curwen Press, February 1970

GAC number

8657