Richard Allen (1933-1999)

In the 1970s Richard Allen began to place less emphasis on the immediate optical impact and more on a greater perceptual subtlety; this is evident in this present work with his subtle use of the grid-cross lines. As Dr Alan Fowler notes, 'crucial to Allen's approach was the need to work within the self-imposed limits (and opportunities) of the systems that [he] chose to adopt ... Allen explained: 'system as it exists in my work evolved slowly over a long period of formal experiment and was due primarily to an innate necessity to work creatively within a personally acceptable range of formal limitations'' (Dr A. Fowler in exhibition catalogue, Richard Allen: A Retrospective, London, Offer Waterman, 2008, n.p.).