Richard Allen – White Painting XII

Richard Allen (8 February 1933 – 9 February 1999) was a British Minimalist, Abstract, Systems, Fundamental, and Geometric painter and printmaker. Allen worked prolifically from 1960 until his death, in 1999, from motor neurone disease.

Despite the name of the works known as “the white paintings” have colour lying beneath the white which was applied within a strict linear structure. A range of different whites i.e. Flake, Zinc, Titanium etc. were used in combinations for their various modulatory abilities of colour bias and opacity. When talking about the execution of these works Allen explained “The working method permits an interactive process whereby the opposing characteristics of a highly regulated structural format and a less predictable human physical element can creatively coexist.”

The white paintings were shown in the retrospective exhibition of his work at The University of Wales School of Art Gallery, Aberystwyth in 1998 and at a one-man show at Flowers East in 1999.

During the winter of 2016/2017 Tate Britain exhibited its Richard Allen work, Six Panel Systems Painting (1972), in a BP Spotlight display.