James Hyman is delighted to present an exhibition of recent paintings by the great British painter Derrick Greaves. The exhibition is an opportunity to marvel at Greaves's remarkable new paintings and is a playful and inspiring demonstration of creativity, invention and reinvention. It coincides with the launch of the artist’s website, www.derrickgreaves.com.

James Hyman comments:

“In 2007, Lund Humphries published a major monograph on Derrick Greaves and in honour of this, and the artist's 80th birthday, the gallery staged a three-part chronological survey of his work. At that time, Derrick was keen to emphasise that he was still exploring, still inventing, still as excited as ever by what he discovered in the studio. He was also rightly, concerned that the book and exhibition should not appear too final, that there were more chapters to come. Each exhibition since then has been distinctive and different; an assertion of Derrick's extraordinary energy. I am therefore delighted to be staging this vibrant new exhibition.”

The exhibition takes its title from a characteristically playful new work in which the outline of a cat’s face is juxtaposed with that of a psychiatrist. Other works show the combined interior and exterior views of a house near his own home in rural Norfolk, continue his exploration of still life motifs and demonstrate the ways in which he continues to reinvent form using strategies derived from cubism and modernism, and address classical themes.

Derrick Greaves is one of the most important painters in Britain and is extensively represented in museum and public collections. Greaves initially gained acclaim in the 1950s, when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale along with the other 'Kitchen-Sink' painters with whom he was initially associated: John Bratby, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith. After this short period his work swiftly developed into a more heraldic style that paralleled 1960s Pop Art. Flatness, linear precision and fields of colour have characterised his work of the last half a century as Greaves has shifted from an imagery based on nature and observable fact to more studio-bound imaginative constructs. In 2007 Lund Humphries published a major monograph on the artist, Derrick Greaves. From Kitchen Sink to Shangri La in 2007.