LONDON.- John Hoyland, one of Britain's leading abstract painters, has died at the age of 76. His work was known for its use of simple shapes and engaging colours, often on a large scale. In his later career he experimented with texture, layering paint thickly onto canvases.

Hoyland's early work was influenced by 'New American Painting', a 1959 exhibition at the Tate. Following his first solo show in 1964 he traveled to America, where he met leading American artists including Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Returning to Britain, he established himself as a major artist with his 1967 exhibition, 'Paintings 1960–67'. John Hoyland's Art Funded works can be seen above.

John Hoyland studied at Sheffield School of Art from 1951 to 1956 and subsequently at the Royal Academy Schools from 1956 to 1960. He went on to teach at Hornsey College of Art from 1960 to 1962 and at Chelsea School of Art from 1962 to 1969 where he was also Principal Lecturer from 1965 to 1969. Subsequently, he taught at St Martin’s School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools from 1974 to 1977 and the Slade School of Fine Art from 1974 to 1989.

Hoyland’s first solo show was held at the Marlborough New London Gallery, London in 1964. This was followed by a string of national and international solo exhibitions, including the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1967). He exhibited at the Waddington Galleries, London throughout the 1970s and 1980s. A retrospective of his work was held at the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1979 and again in 1999 in the Sackler Galleries of the Royal Academy. Hoyland’s work has also been included in numerous international group exhibitions from 1964, when his work was selected for the New Generation exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. More recently he participated in group exhibitions at the Tate Gallery, Liverpool and the Barbican Gallery, London in 1993, and at Galerie Josine Bokhoven, Amsterdam and the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1994.

Hoyland received many awards throughout his career, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Purchase Award (1963) and a Peter Stuyvesant travel bursary (1964). He was also a Prize Winner at the John Moore’s Liverpool Exhibition (1964) and later won First Prize (1982). He received an Arts Council purchase award (1979), joint first prize (with William Scott) in the Korn Ferry International (1986) and first prize of the Athena Art Award (1987). In 1998 he won the Wollaston Award for the most distinguished work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Hoyland developed strong links with America from the late 1960s. He was appointed Charles A Dana Professor of Fine Art at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York in 1972 and was artist in residence at the Studio School, New York in 1978 and at Melbourne University in 1979. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1991 and in 1999 was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy Schools. In 2001 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University.