Ken Horton (b. 1940) grew up in Huyton and attended Prescot Grammar School. His father was a keen landscape artist, so Ken was introduced to art from an early age and his interest grew. At Grammar School, he befriended now famous Liverpool fine artist, Stuart Sutcliffe. Both pupils enjoyed working together in the art room under the supervision of their art teacher Willliam Walters.
At 16 Ken left school and started work as a trainee technician at Liverpool University Medical School. At this time Stuart was studying at Liverpool College of Art in Hope Street, and encouraged Ken to apply, which he did and was accepted.
At Art College, Ken worked in various departments before focusing on the study of Painting under the tutelage of Arthur Ballard. The curriculum included life drawing and compositional studies. Following graduation, Ken spent a further year training to be a teacher and from there embarked on a forty-year career working in several Liverpool secondary schools teaching ceramics and art.
Alongside this, Ken continued to produce his own work in painting and sculpture which was informed by early 20th Century artists such as Picasso and Brâncuși. During the 1970s and ‘80s he exhibited work at St George’s Hall, The Neptune Theatre and as part of June Furlong’s “Merseyside Artists” exhibition series which took place at venues such as the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo Building, University of Liverpool’s Senate House, The Mersey Docks and Harbour Building and other venues.
After painting a succession of figurative works often with a surrealistic and photo-realist approach; during the 1980s he became fascinated by the power of vibrant colours and in a particular brand of abstract expressionism known as Orphism pioneered by the painters Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Ken’s mature work, displayed in this exhibition, uses only straight lines and circles.
Using a variety of techniques, Ken takes a constructivist approach in which the finished works emerge without forward planning. His colourful works are exciting, vibrant and multi-layered. Despite their abstract nature, his paintings often reference organic forms especially birds; Ken is a keen nature photographer and ornithologist.
Ken has embraced the opportunity to present this retrospective exhibition which includes paintings from 40 years ago through to very new work completed over recent months.
The exhibition runs from 6th November to 18th December at The Cornerstone Gallery at Liverpool Hope University.