A pioneer of Optical Art, Kidner has devoted much of his career to developing work of a constructive nature. After brushes with American Abstract Expressionism and Bauhaus ideas he began to develop his own distinctive style. His interests in mathematics, science and the theories of chaos have informed an art that is at once rational and playful. Kidner’s translation of the dialogue between order and indeterminacy into a visual language has meant that his work – though founded in a rigorous intellectual approach to colour and form – also resonates emotionally: ‘Unless you read a painting as a feeling,’ he has said, ‘then you don’t get anything at all’. From the 1950s onwards his work has moved through various phases and modes of investigation, culminating in a prolific body that Kidner has expressed in chapters including After Image, The Stripe, The Moire, The Wave, Series, The Column, Lattice, Elastic and Pentagon.
His distinguished career has included many honours, influential teaching posts, international group shows and one man exhibitions in Britain, Eastern Europe, Brazil, Austria and Scandinavia. A retrospective at the Serpentine in 1984 introduced a new generation of British artists to his work, and he was elected as a Royal Academician in 2004.
Michael Kidner CV