David Leverett : Paintings and Prints

David Leverett (1938 – 2002)

David Leverett was a British painter whose distinguished career spanned more than five decades, encompassing abstract painting, collage, landscape, teaching, and exhibition design. Born in Nottingham in 1938, he studied at Nottingham College of Art from 1957 to 1961 before continuing his training at the Royal Academy Schools in London between 1962 and 1965.His first solo exhibition was held at the Redfern Gallery, London, in 1966, marking the beginning of a prolific exhibiting career. Throughout the 1960s he participated in significant exhibitions including Young Contemporaries, the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, and British Painting and Sculpture at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, as well as the Royal Academy Bicentenary Exhibition. Leverett's work developed through a sustained engagement with landscape, both as a means of exploring humanity's place within the natural world and as a reflection on the environmental forces that shape our lives. Working across abstraction and landscape, he produced paintings of remarkable scale and ambition, often combining expressive colour, gesture, and structure to evoke the dynamism of nature. His celebrated Sacred Gardens series, exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in 1990, exemplified the epic and contemplative qualities that characterised much of his mature work. Internationally recognised for his contribution to contemporary painting, Leverett participated in important exhibitions dedicated to pittura pittura (pure painting), including the landmark exhibition Empirica, curated by Giorgio Cortenova in Rimini in 1975 and later presented at the Gallery of Modern Art in Verona. Following his first exhibition with Studio la Città in 1971, he became closely associated with the gallery and participated in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe, including shows in Athens, Berlin, and London. Alongside his artistic practice, Leverett pursued a respected teaching career, holding positions at the Slade School of Fine Art and the University of Reading. By the late 1970s, his work had been exhibited at the Tate Gallery, London, and in exhibitions organised by the British Council and Arts Council England. David Leverett's paintings and collages are represented in major public and private collections internationally, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council Collection, the British Council Collection, and The McManus Art Gallery & Museum, Dundee. His work continues to be recognised for its powerful synthesis of abstraction and landscape, and for its enduring exploration of humanity's relationship with the natural environment.