Heavily influenced by the exhibition of new American painting in London in the late 1950s, John Hoyland soon established himself as one of Britain’s most prominent abstract painters. Among the first British painters to use acrylic paint, following its arrival on the market in the 1960s, his work is typified by its vibrant, often luminous, colors and, especially toward the end of his career, energetic handling of paint. Hoyland’s stated influences were wide-ranging, from the paintings of J. M. W. Turner and John Constable to the culture of the Caribbean, jazz music to snorkeling, and poetry to pottery. Above all, he wished his art to appeal to the viewer’s senses without the national limitations inherent in speech or text. He strived to make paintings that "could cross social, linguistic and cultural barriers in the way that music does." Devilaya is representative of his work from the late 1970s when he began deploying a more varied vocabulary of forms, incorporating triangles and diamonds that divided the canvas in interesting ways. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020
