JENNIFER DURRANT RA  
         
 

 

Biography

Born in Brighton in 1942, Jennifer Durrant was educated at Brighton College of Art (1959-63) and the Slade School of Fine Art (1963-66). In 1994 she was elected Royal Academician. She moved to Umbria, Italy in 2000, where she now lives and works.

Durrant has extensively exhibited her large scale canvases in the UK and the US throughout her career, since appearing as a prizewinner in the Young Contemporaries in 1966. Works are held in the permanent collection at Tate and at other major UK public institutions as well as many in the corporate field. Since re-locating to Umbria, Durrant has produced a major body of acrylic and canvas pieces which respond to new lyrical influences and continue the exacting process of colour/form juxtaposition which has consistently governed the work. The series Last Conversations and Uccelli continue from the most recent large format works. Intimate in scale, they retain the rigour of Durrant's focused compositions and present as joyful colour essays, partly triggered by music and a continuous flow of ideas.

Her 2008 exhibition ...With Garlands Drest... presented a radiant new body of work, all from a series titled Ghirlanda. The accompanying catalogue has a major new essay based on interviews with the critic Sarah Kent.

In September 2009 Durrant was invited by the Mark Rothko Foundation, to participate in a two week International Plein Air event in Daugavpils, Latvia.