Ten Good Years
The Heong Gallery at Downing College, Cambridge
Friday 29 May - Sunday 11 October 2026
Ten Good Years celebrates the gallery’s anniversary by paying homage to its inaugural exhibition Generation Painting 1955–65: British Art from the Collection of Sir Alan Bowness. This exhibition showcased works from the collection of Bowness, a former Director of the Tate Gallery and a Downing College alumnus. Ten Good Years re-shows selected works from this collection by significant mid-twentieth-century artists, and introduces new works produced over the past ten years by artists with connections to West Penwith, Cornwall.
Ten Good Years features work by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Simon Bayliss, Alan Davie, Pam Evelyn, Terry Frost, Christopher P. Green, Patrick Heron, Realf Heygate, Lubaina Himid, Peter Lanyon, Janet Leach, Siobhan McLaughlin, Richard Smith, Lucy Stein, Mark Tobey, Jonathan Micheal Ray, Ro Robertson, and Veronica Ryan. In conjunction with the exhibition, other work from Bowness’s collection will be shown at Cambridge’s other major galleries: William Scott at Kettle’s Yard and Roger Hilton at The Fitzwilliam Museum.
The exhibition is curated by Joe Lyward. It is accompanied by a printed catalogue and free public events, and supported by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust and the Porthmeor Fund.
