Collection: John Holden   1942  Follow artist

Born in Rochester, Kent, (1942) Holden studied at Medway College of Art & Design (1959-63) and the Royal Academy Schools, London (1963-66). Initially a landscape painter of stark snow and street scenes, he made his first hard-edged, geometric paintings after seeing an exhibition of works by the American abstract expressionist Franz Kline (1910-1962) at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1964.

Holden was encouraged in this development by William Scott (1913-1989), then a visiting lecturer who took an interest in his work, and by his tutors Derrick Greaves (1927-2022) and Edward Bawden (1903-1989), whose clean lines and design sense would have a profound influence. After graduating, Holden worked directly alongside Bawden on the artist’s murals for the BP Headquarters at Britannic House (now Citypoint) and the British Pavilion at the Montreal World Fair (1966-7). He would later be commissioned to produce murals of his own for Leicester University’s Wilson Building and the Avril Robarts Library at Liverpool John Moores University.