Paul Huxley Biography

Through his large-scale abstract paintings, Paul Huxley creates captivating dynamic illusions. Using blocks of colour and linear patterns, Huxley challenges the viewer to decipher his work to determine why each element has been placed together.

At just 13, Huxley enrolled at Harrow School of Art. By the time he walked through the doors of the Royal Academy at 17, he was already well-versed in the three central methods of printmaking: etching, block printing and lithography.

Huxley credits the 60s as a pivotal time for his art. After winning a Peter Stuyvesant Travel Award in 1964, he travelled to America, where he established friendships with some of the leading American artists of the period including Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell and Jasper Johns. Renting a large apartment in New York allowed him to significantly scale up the size of his pieces, and he went on to create his ‘key series’ works, which birthed the divided canvases that have characterised his art ever since.

As well as exhibiting internationally and collecting many a prize, Huxley has enjoyed an illustrious teaching career. In 1986 he was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art, and he went on to shape the young minds of many, including Tracey Emin, Dinos Chapman and Andrew Grassie.

Paul resides in West London, where he shares the same complex of art studios with Peter Blake and Ben Johnson.