Kippers c.1956
Oil on canvas, 20x56 cm

"I can paint and draw as well as an old master," Cyril Mann used to boast. Occasionally, he tackled a painting in the traditional way, just to prove his point.

By prioritising the dynamic effects of light and shadow in his later paintings, Mann said he had to "destroy the three-dimensional form of his subject matter", taking it ever closer to abstraction.