William Johnstone OBE (1897–1981) was one of the most radical, intellectually adventurous and influential figures in twentieth-century British art. Painter, educator, modernist pioneer and visionary teacher, he stood at the centre of a generation that transformed the direction of British art before and after the Second World War. Born in Denholm in the Scottish Borders, the son of a farmer, Johnstone retained throughout his life a profound connection to the rhythms, structures and elemental forces of the landscape. Though his career carried him to the forefront of avant-garde circles in London and Paris, the memory of Borders farmland, weather and geology remained embedded in his imagination and became the spiritual foundation of his abstract art.
