John Piper

Born in 1903 into a comfortable Surrey family, John Piper was a quintessentially English artist, polite, well-spoken and formally dressed in jacket and tie. However, his public image belied an artistic mind of boundless energy and creativity. Whilst the avant-garde Picasso is seen as the go-to artist for all round genius, John Piper could match him in every medium.

Beginning with sketching, watercolours and simple printmaking, Piper studied at Richmond Art School and the Royal College of Art in the ’20s and ’30s. After a visit to Paris, he turned to abstraction and joined the ‘Seven and Five Abstract Group’ in 1934. The ’30s were marked by the production of abstract art, often incorporating collages, and of ‘constructions’ which were about as far away from the popular view of Piper’s work as is possible.

By the end of the ’30s, he became disillusioned with abstraction and returned to a more naturalistic and representational approach concentrating on landscapes and architectural views. This change of direction was confirmed by his work recording the effects of the blitz on Britain’s buildings, especially churches, as an official war artist during the Second World War.

For the next 40 years, Piper was endlessly innovative and extraordinarily prolific. Dedicated to excellence and quality in all he did, there is hardly a medium in which he did not excel, including ceramics, fabric design, mosaics, murals, photography, stage sets and costume design, stained glass and even designing fireworks displays, he was also editor of the Shell Guide series for some 40 years.

Piper is best known for his extensive studies of British architecture, especially churches, and for landscapes in oil, watercolour and print. The mountains of north Wales inspired him from the early ’40s to the mid-50s but as he refused to fly, his foreign trips were limited to France and Italy. His work is often characterised by a bold use of colour with strong abstract elements, dynamic composition and an ability to capture the character of a place with a strong sense of atmosphere.

His work is avidly collected and is held in many museums and galleries but he was no establishment man, a position which may partly explain his ridiculously low profile in the art world. After the war, he became a Trustee of the Tate and National Galleries and in 1959 he became a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission, at all times encouraging other and especially emerging artists. He loathed the Royal Academy for their rejection of abstraction in the 1930s and refused a knighthood in 1972 although he accepted a Companion of Honour for ‘distinction in arts’, something of an understatement. He died in 1992 just short of his 90th birthday.