(I)-(VI) THOMAS SUITE, 1975
each signed Denny, dated '75 and editioned 54/100 lower right
each screenprint on paper
each 90 x 64cm (sheet)
each unframed
(6)

Denny and Smith were part of a golden generation of artists who graduated from the Royal College of Art in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Others included David Hockney, Peter Blake and Joe Tilson. But Denny and Smith were particular soul mates. They shared a studio, were fascinated by the Abstract Expressionism of Jackson Pollock and his fellow action painters in the USA and remained close friends for life.

The first major London exhibition devoted to American Abstract Expressionism was at the Tate Gallery in 1959, the same year that Smith travelled to the USA on a Harkness Fellowship. It was also the year that Denny and Smith together with Ralph Rumney held their seminal show Place at the ICA. As Roger Coleman explained in his guide to the exhibition, the show reflected the artists' shared interest in mass-media as a source of inspiration; in scale - each of their canvases had to be of particular dimensions and notably over-size; in colour - they agreed using a limited range of colours between them, and in lay out - the works were positioned adjacent to each other on the diagonal in the gallery.

It was a collaborative exhibition format that Denny developed the following year as the organising secretary for the much larger ground-breaking show Situation at the RBA Galleries. The exhibition brought together some twenty British painters working on an ambitious scale creating work to engage with Abstract Expressionism. One criteria for acceptance was an artists' work would only be shown if it was at least 30 foot square. Besides the work of Smith and Denny it included major examples by such painters as John Hoyland, William Turnbull and John Plumb.

Situation established Denny as a leading figure in British abstract painting, working on a monumental scale using a range of subtle colour combinations to define the strong vertical and horizontal divisions that characterise his compositions. It led to him representing Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1966, and a full retrospective exhibition of his work at the Tate Gallery in 1973, the youngest artist to receive such a distinction. Smith was similarly honoured just a few years later. He represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1970 and a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Tate Gallery in 1975.