The George and Ann Dannatt Gift

Donated by George Dannatt (1915-2009), an abstract artist who initially worked as a chartered surveyor, this collection helps us tell the story of post-war abstract art, particularly the artists living in creative communities in St Ives, Cornwall.

While working as a chartered surveyor George studied composition and harmony in the evenings and worked as a music critic. This musical training undoubtedly influenced his abstract paintings. In the mid-50s he became friends with the artist Patrick Heron after visiting his studio in his capacity as a surveyor and was soon drawn close to the St Ives artists. He became a regular visitor to Cornwall, exhibiting with the Penwith Society of Arts and joining the Newlyn Society of Artists. Through his friendships he developed a remarkable collection of artworks by figures associated with Cornwall, including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Paul Feiler, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Roger Hilton, Peter Lanyon, Denis Mitchell, Ben Nicholson, William Scott, John Tunnard, John Wells and Bryan Wynter.

George and his wife Ann, founder of the Association of Women Housing Managers, whom he married in 1943, created their own rural equivalent of Kettle’s Yard, filling their home in Wiltshire with artworks, books and music. Having no immediate heirs, George and Ann had placed their collection in Trust and they explored ways in which the majority of it could be kept together for the benefit of future generations finally deciding upon Pallant House Gallery as its permanent home.

Highlights from the collection includes works by the St Ives artists, and other British artists such as Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, John Craxton, Elizabeth Frink, Alan Reynolds and Keith Vaughan, as well as prints by European Modernists such as Jean Arp, Eduardo Chillida, Juan Gris, Hans Hartung, Jean Helion, Marie Laurencin, Pierre Soulages, and Victor Vasarely.

With thanks to the George and Ann Dannatt Trust.