20 century collection
Oil on canvas, 301 x 121.3cm
Accession Number WAG3766
The artist spent his early years in Mauritius, deeply interested in the outdoors, minerals and crystals. These elements are the basis for the forms and patterns in his paintings, which he has described as emerging "unpredictably, autonomously".
Initially encouraged by his mother and sister, he became a full-time painter in 1947. His first works employed geometrical forms but by the 1950s he considered himself to be "an abstract expressionist" and stated that "creation begins with the articulation of chaos". 'Primordial Image', which is made up of strong but harmonious uses of colour in powerful movements across the canvas, was shown at the John Moores Exhibition in 1959.