An exhibition of paintings and other works by David Troostwyk

Private View: 24 January 2019, 6pm-8pm
Exhibition Open: Wednesday - Friday, 12pm-6pm, or by appointment

“For me, the act of painting was never considered, never possible unless only painting could provide the means of sustaining legitimate calls of the mind.”
- David Troostwyk

This exhibition introduces the work of David Troostwyk (1926-2009) to a new audience, underlining its originality and vitality. David Troostwyk’s work with text, objects and painting displays a reduced elegance and focus on the way art can communicate ideas. Although pared-back, his work was moral. His succinct pictorial and linguistic vocabulary was in part indebted to his youthful employment in advertising for the London Display Company, and as a coach-painter. As a childhood evacuee from war-torn Europe, his work drew on the deep, and sometimes troubling, responses he had to 20th Century history and his inner emotional life. 

A leading British conceptual artist who worked with painting and text, his work is held in the Tate Gallery Collection, Arts Council Collection, Southampton City Art Gallery as well as private collections. Troostwyk studied at St Albans Art School (1950-53) and the Royal College of Art (1953-56). He became Head of Painting at Winchester Art School (1964-67) and later taught at various London art schools, most notably at Camberwell College of Art (1965-89).

This exhibition has been selected by British painter and Camberwell College of Arts Fine Art Programme Director Daniel Sturgis. A publication will accompany this exhibition with a new text by Daniel Sturgis, who will also be in conversation with Robin Klassnik (Director, Matt’s Gallery, who first showed Troostwyk’s work in 1979), at a public event at Camberwell College of Arts on 7 February 2019. David Troostwyk is represented by Matt's Gallery, London. The works in the exhibition are shown courtesy of the Trustees of the estate of David Troostwyk.

Image: David Troostwyk, Letters from a British Soldier, 1997. Courtesy Matt's Gallery and the Trustees of the Estate of David Troostwyk