George Dannatt’s successful career as a painter followed initial careers in his family business of surveying and in music criticism. In a statement for the catalogue for an Orion Gallery exhibition in 1975, Dannatt described music as the main influence in his painting, and the sharp eye of a surveyor can perhaps be seen in the carefully observed geometric work that bookended his artistic career.

Dannatt was inspired and instructed by first Adrian Heath, and then later by Patrick Heron and John Wells. He established close links to many in the St Ives school, and alongside his own considerable body of work, Dannatt and his wife Ann built a significant collection of post-war British works by artists such as Ben Nicholson, William Scott and Elizabeth Frink, many of which are now in the collection of the Pallant House Gallery.

This picture was painted as Dannatt transitioned from his self-described ‘lyrical abstract’ approach to a geometric abstraction influenced by the British constructivists who helped him in his early career.
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Provenance:

The George Dannatt Trust