Peter Lanyon

George Peter Lanyon (8 February 1918 – 31 August 1964) was a British painter associated with the St Ives School. His work brought together landscape painting and abstract art, drawing on the coast, communities and industries of his native Cornwall. Although his mature paintings often appear abstract, they remained rooted in particular places and in his experience of space, weather and movement. He also made constructions, ceramics and collages.

Lanyon developed his practice through contact with Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, and subsequently with American painters associated with abstract expressionism. His paintings included Porthleven (1951), St Just (1953) and the works inspired by gliding that occupied much of his final years. He began gliding in 1959 and used flight to extend his exploration of landscape into the movement and forces of the air. He died in 1964 following a gliding accident, aged 46. Subsequent exhibitions and scholarship have examined his contribution to the development of modern landscape painting.