Peter Lanyon: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings and Three-dimensional Objects, 2018
Shortlisted for William MB Berger Prize for British Art History 2019
Reviews
Contemplating this substantial book, I almost felt I had discovered a new painter, to which no previous exhibition of his work had introduced me. Treves succinctly evokes Lanyon’s formal experiments in prose, which is not just eminently readable but also consistently enlightening.
This book is full of surprises, not least in terms of the paintings— so many lovely little paintings and unfamiliar but impressive larger ones— and is an essential purchase for any serious admirer of Modern British painting. It will also be the foundation of all future Lanyon scholarship. A model catalogue raisonné and an unexpectedly exciting one.
Andrew Lambirth, Take Two, The Art Newspaper, December 2018
It is an exemplary achievement in art scholarship: in addition to uncovering lost works and tracking sales histories, it provides unobtrusive critical analysis, at once meticulous and self-effacing. It was ten years in the making, and what is striking is how in this time Lanyon’s reputation has been transformed (not least by the 2015 Courtauld exhibition ‘Soaring Flight’, which Treves co-curated).
David Nowell Smith, Frieze, 29 March 2018
Toby Treves’s Peter Lanyon: Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings and Three-Dimensional Works is the definitive account of the career of one of the leading artists not just of the St Ives School, but also of postwar British painting…the more significant pieces are without fail accorded exemplary catalogue entries, which amount to mini-monographs and pay particular attention to the technical aspects of their creation’
David Ekserdjian, ‘Best art books of 2018’, Evening Standard
‘This is the heaviest book on the short list, but it is worth every ounce, an absolutely model catalogue raisonné. Lanyon, this book shows, got into his stride from the very start. The research is formidable and exhaustive. It rightly makes Lanyon appear world class and he is treated here in a grand and appropriate manner. The design is excellent, an unbelievably handsome presentation of Lanyon’s art, a triumph for author and all concerned in the publication.’
Judging panel of the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History 2019