Walter Hoyle

Walter Hoyle Shell Guide to Monmouthshire advertising poster Modern British Art

1950s

Walter Hoyle was born in 1922. He trained at Beckenham School of Art and the Royal College of Art. At the latter, he was strongly influenced by Edward Bawden, one of Britain’s greatest linocut printers. Bawden had been commissioned by the 1951 Festival of Britain to produce a mural for the South Bank and chose Hoyle to assist on account of his great talent. Hoyle moved to Great Bardfield in Essex, becoming a part of the Great Bardfield group of artists of whom, in the post war era, probably Bawden and Kenneth Rowntree are the most famous. Diverse in style, they created figurative work in stark contrast to the abstract work of the St Ives artists at the opposite end of the country. The Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden was established to celebrate the works of the Great Bardfield group. Hoyle taught at St Martin’s School of Art from 1951–60, Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1960–64 and Cambridge School of Art from 1964–85, during which time he launched Cambridge Print Editions. His work is in the collections of the Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Museum, Kettle’s Yard and The Fry Art Gallery. The Royal West of England Academy holds a large oil painting of Trinity College Cambridge. Commercial commissions came from Shell, the BBC, the Post Office, the Folio Society, Christie’s Contemporary Art and Editions Electro. He wrote the book To Sicily with Edward Bawden.