Obituary: Justin Knowles ; Boldly Inventive Painter Interrupted in His Work for 24 Years

Beginning of article

JUSTIN KNOWLES was one of the most innovative artists of his generation. Writing in Studio International in 1972 Patrick Heron contended that Knowles's work was "eloquent, fertile, and commands a sheerness of image that is abolutely masterly". This was praise indeed from a leading practitioner and critic, especially as Knowles was essentially self-taught and always self-directed.

But within a year or so of Heron writing, a studio fire would stop Knowles exhibiting for many years. The intervening period showed him at his most resourceful, able to surmount huge emotional and economic setbacks. His re-emergence as a public artist in the early 1990s showed that he had lost …