George Dannatt (1915-2009)
was a well-known exponent of constructivist art and a collector of art. He was born in Blackheath and in the 1940s he became a chartered surveyor and music critic. In the 1950s Dannatt took an active interest in modern art, especially constructivist art, which became an absorbing passion after he visited Cornwall in 1963 and met the progressive artists working there. Dannatt, together with his wife Ann, became a strong collector of the works of these artists. He then began exhibiting his own carefully crafted abstract work. From 1970-83 he showed regularly at the Penwith Gallery in St. Ives and he also exhibited at the Newlyn Art Gallery, becoming a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists. In 1975 he had his first three man show with John Wells and Alexander Mackenzie at the Orion Gallery, directed by John Halkes, and later in 1982 he had a Retrospective exhibition in Newlyn. Dannatt’s own work is in a number of public collections, including Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; University of Chichester; Southampton City Art Gallery; and the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. The Dannatts lived in London for many years, before settling permanently in 1981 at East Hatch near Tisbury in Wiltshire. Nick Waters Art.
