//Robyn Denny, early 60s. Photo: Bernard Jacobson Gallery//

Artist/illustrator Peter Knock pays tribute to the British ‘Situation’ painter Robyn Denny, who has died:

Sad to learn of the death of abstract painter Robyn Denny last Tuesday (May 20).  It surprised me that he was, in fact, 83; my image of him is locked into the 60s when he was one of the hip and talented artists to have emerged from the Royal College of Art (where he studied in the 50s).

Great Big Biggest Wide London, Denny’s mural for Austin Reed’s Regent Street store, conveyed classic 1960s new age optimism, and received the ultimate seal of approval as a piece defining of its era when The Beatles asked to be photographed standing in front of it in 1963.

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Tags: Austin Reed, Great Big Biggest Wide London, Josef Albers, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, Peter Knock, Richard Smith, Robyn Denny, Royal College Of Art, Tate Britain, the Beatles, Tom Overton

Can of Biba own-brand baked beans. Packaging design: Whitmore-Thomas Partnership, 1973.

Chelsea Space director Donald Smith has invited me to contribute items from my design collection to his forthcoming show Ideal Home, which features the work of more than 50 artists and designers spanning 1913 to 2011.

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Tags: Biba, Chelsea Space, Damien Hirst, David Bowie, Do It Yourself, Donald Smith, Ian Dury, Ideal Home, Jane Ashley, laura Ashley, London Design Festival, Lucian Freud, Mark Titchner, Patrick Caulfield, Richard Wentworth, Roy Lichtenstein, Steve Howard, Tim Whitmore