Modernists and Mavericks is an account of painting in London from the Second World War to the 1970s, illustrated by documentary photographs and the works themselves
The development of painting in London from the Second World War to the 1970s has never before been told before as a single narrative.
Modernists and Mavericks explores this period based on an exceptionally deep well of firsthand interviews, often unpublished, with such artists as Victor Pasmore, John Craxton, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj, Euan Uglow, Howard Hodgkin, Terry Frost, Gillian Ayres, Bridget Riley, David Hockney, Frank Bowling, Leon Kossoff, John Hoyland, and Patrick Caulfield.
Martin Gayford also teases out the thread weaving these individual lives together and demonstrates how and why, long after it was officially declared dead, painting lived and thrived in London.
Simultaneously aware of the influences of Jackson Pollock, Giacometti, and the traditions of Western art from Piero della Francesca to Picasso and Matisse, the postwar painters were bound by their confidence that this ancient medium could do fresh and marvellous things, and explored in their diverse ways, the possibilities of paint.
“Well-researched… a fascinating look at postwar London artists, filled with entertaining figures.” - Kirkus Reviews
“If you are interested in modern British art, the book is unputdownable. If you are not, read it. You soon will be.” - Financial Times
