Zingu, 1987
Private collection, Wellesley, MA, USA
Norman Toynton (25 January 1939 – 30 June 2025) was a British artist who lived for many years in the United States, where his work was acclaimed for its ‘grand visual and tactile splendour’ and for ‘marshalling all the sensuous force of colour and oil paint to induce us to look with truly questioning attention’. He was the Chair of the Graduate Programme in Fine Arts at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and exhibited widely in New York and Boston. In 2006, he returned to England, where he lived and worked on the North Norfolk coast until his death.
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As I see it, the most valuable purpose abstract painting can have now is to clarify the potential of painting as a mode of thinking. I know of few abstract painters who have the patience and intelligence to practice their art deliberately enough to let us see painting for the thinking process it is. One of the most accomplished of these is Norman Toynton.
Kenneth Baker, Artforum
Toynton’s paintings are works of such authenticity that they are shocking…after a session with his art we emerge with our vision purified and our faith strengthened that it is still possible to do something new.
David Bonetti, ARTnews
