This September, PAST MASTERS comes to The Long Gallery in Tilford, bringing together rare original and printed works drawn from the CCA Galleries archive, which stretches back to 1972.
The exhibition brings together an exceptional group of artists including Sir Terry Frost, Sandra Blow, Joan Miró, John Hoyland, John Piper, Feliks Topolski, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Donald Hamilton Fraser.
Spanning different generations, movements and approaches, PAST MASTERS offers an opportunity to encounter work by artists who have left an enduring mark on modern and post-war art.
Ahead of the exhibition, we're taking a closer look at three of the artists and works you'll be able to discover at The Long Gallery.
John Piper
Painter, printmaker, designer, photographer and writer John Piper was one of the most distinctive British artists of the 20th century.
Architecture and the British landscape became recurring subjects throughout his career, from churches and monuments to stately homes and ruins. Rather than simply documenting these places, Piper transformed them through expressive colour, dramatic contrasts and richly atmospheric mark-making.
On display in PAST MASTERS will be Wightwick Manor (1977), depicting the Victorian Arts and Crafts house in Wolverhampton. Against a dark and brooding landscape, the distinctive black-and-white architecture emerges through Piper's characteristically expressive treatment of line and colour.
The work demonstrates Piper's ability to capture not just the appearance of a building, but something of its history, atmosphere and sense of place.
Sandra Blow
A pioneering figure in British post-war abstraction, Sandra Blow developed an instantly recognisable visual language built around colour, shape, texture and movement.
Her work evolved considerably throughout her long career, but experimentation remained at its heart. Geometric forms sit alongside spontaneous marks, creating compositions in which balance and disorder seem to exist simultaneously.
Interaction (2000) captures this beautifully. Large black circular forms dominate the composition, surrounded by vivid flashes of red, orange, blue and green. The shapes overlap, interrupt and respond to one another, creating the sense of visual conversation suggested by the title.
It is a bold example of the energy, freedom and instinctive approach that made Blow such an important figure in British abstract art.
John Hoyland
John Hoyland was one of the leading British abstract painters of his generation, pursuing a form of abstraction driven by colour, emotion and the physical possibilities of paint.
Hoyland rejected the idea that an abstract painting needed to represent something recognisable. Instead, colour and form could create their own emotional experience – something to be felt rather than decoded.
Created towards the end of his career, Warrior Universe (2010) demonstrates the extraordinary vitality that remained in his work. A blazing red form dominates the centre of the composition, surrounded by dense, textured passages of darker colour and punctuated by vivid details.
Raw, physical and intensely expressive, the work provides a powerful example of Hoyland's lifelong fascination with what colour and paint alone could achieve.
PAST MASTERS at The Long Gallery
These works will appear alongside pieces by Sir Terry Frost, Joan Miró, Feliks Topolski, Dame Elisabeth Frink and Donald Hamilton Fraser, offering visitors the opportunity to explore rare works brought together from across the CCA Galleries archive.
Join us for the opening of PAST MASTERS and enjoy an evening of exceptional art, drinks and canapés in the beautiful surroundings of the Surrey Hills.
PRIVATE VIEW
Thursday 24 September
6-8pm
The Long Gallery, Tilford, Surrey
Everyone is welcome. RSVP here to join us at the Private View.
The exhibition continues until 24 October 2026.
