LONDON.- James Hyman is presenting an exhibition of elegant recent ink drawings of an iris by the great British painter Derrick Greaves. Flower motifs are a constant in Greaves’s work and these new drawings extend this development. Derrick Greaves. Iris Drawings is an opportunity to marvel at Greaves's economy and facility and is a lyrical and inspiring demonstration of ongoing creativity, invention and reinvention.

James Hyman comments: “In 2005 the gallery staged an exhibition entitled ‘The Pleasures of Drawing’ that provided an overview of Greaves’s draftsmanship and we are delighted to present this new exhibition of beautiful recent works. Almost a decade ago, in 2007, Lund Humphries published a major monograph on Derrick Greaves on the occasion of the artist's 80th birthday. At that time, Derrick was keen to emphasise that he was still exploring, still inventing, still as excited as ever by what he discovered in the studio. Each exhibition since then has been distinctive and different; an assertion of Derrick's extraordinary energy. I am therefore delighted to be staging this vibrant new exhibition.”

Derrick Greaves is one of the most important painters in Britain and is extensively represented in museum and public collections. Greaves initially gained acclaim in the 1950s, when he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale along with the other 'Kitchen-Sink' painters with whom he was initially associated: John Bratby, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith. After this short period his work swiftly developed into a more heraldic style that paralleled 1960s Pop Art. Flatness, linear precision and fields of colour have characterised his work of the last half a century as Greaves has shifted from an imagery based on nature and observable fact to more studio-bound imaginative constructs. In 2007 Lund Humphries published a major monograph on the artist, Derrick Greaves. From Kitchen Sink to Shangri La.