Aptly described as ‘an artist’s artist’, Peter Kinley (1926-1988) was a well-respected painter who achieved great early success and commanded much attention during his lifetime. His work was extensively reviewed during his career, but little has been published about it since his death over twenty years ago. This book, the first substantial monograph on Kinley, redresses this omission.

Through biography and art-historical discussion, the texts by Catherine Kinley and Marco Livingstone provide an in-depth analysis of Kinley’s life and work and chart his development from the figure paintings, still-lifes and landscapes of the mid-1950s to the succinct and emblematic works for which he is best known. Livingstone’s analysis of the paintings demonstrates how they underwent a dramatic stylistic and philosophical shift in the 1960s towards a flatter, more hieratic style that encoded experience in bold, pared-down compositions. Complemented by a detailed discussion by the artist’s widow of his eventful life, from his formative years in Vienna through to his maturity in London and Wiltshire, this book offers the definitive account of Kinley’s artistic evolution.

Including 100 colour images of key works from Kinley’s forty-year career, the narrative is also supported with biographical photographs from the Kinley family archive. These illustrations, combined with informative and illuminating texts on his paintings and on his singular life, make this publication an essential resource for anyone interested in this key British artist and the period in which he worked.