Geoffrey Rigden, who has died aged 72, was an abstract painter and sculptor influenced by a love of jazz and an eclectic mix of French and American artists. Usually produced with a rich palette, Rigden’s images have a remarkable, magnetic quality. Yet, although he exhibited widely and examples of his work are held in public collections, he never become a household name.
Born at Cheltenham on July 22 1943.
On a scholarship at the Royal College of Art in 1963, his approach to painting “was soon adapted to comply with my perception of how an ‘urban’ artist should proceed”. For Rigden, it was the discovery of the American abstractionist Stuart Davis that “fixed” his direction. “I think that his links with earlier European ‘urban type’ painting – like Léger, whom I admired – and the word images with their jazz associations which fascinated me – made up a picture that I could identify with,” he recalled. A large exhibition of Morris Louis, the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler and Kenneth Noland, and the 1965 New Generation sculpture show at the Whitechapel Gallery confirmed the abstractionist course Rigden’s art would pursue.
To live and support a wife and small child, Rigden did occasional jobs repainting sculpture by such artists as Anthony Caro and David Annesley to supplement a main income from painting and decorating. He also worked for several years as a part-time assistant at the Kasmin Gallery, helping with shows of artists including Caro and Noland, “from whom, in particular, I learnt a great deal.”
For seven or eight years from 1970, Rigden taught two days a week at Canterbury College of Art, occasionally visiting other colleges. With his painter friend Mali Morris, he taught at the fine art department of the University of Reading. Living in the country, there was a revival of interest in landscape, which “inflected” his painting, although it continued to be non-representational. He also painted “straight” landscapes, inspired by the American artist Milton Avery.
From 1977, Rigden’s Canterbury colleague Stass Paraskos invited him to attend Cyprus College of Art summer school, beginning a relationship with the island that lasted many years. It prompted black and white paintings on paper incorporating landscape and architectural motifs.
From the mid-1980s, Rigden’s work played down painterliness, becoming “more about planarity allied with a kind of geometric drawing”. His choice of media was catholic and work practice slow. Latterly, he made painted constructions of wood and mixed media, as wall reliefs and free-standing sculptures.
He won a prize in 1965 in the junior section of the John Moores, Liverpool, and in 1977 at the Tolly Cobbold/Eastern Arts Open. Solo shows were held at venues including the Spacex Gallery, Exeter; Cross Street Gallery; and the Poussin Gallery in 2012.
The last, a survey of Rigden’s work since 1975, was organised by Cuillin Bantock who observed that “while never failing in insight over the work of others, a trait which made him beloved of students, [Rigden] is curiously diffident, almost inarticulate, about his own”.
Rigden is survived by the artist Jennifer Harding, his partner of 30 years, and by Kate Rigden, his daughter from a previous relationship
Geoffrey Rigden, born July 22 1943, died January 26 2016