Clyde Hopkins (1946–2018) was a British painter whose work occupied a distinctive position within post-war abstraction in the UK. His paintings balanced structure and improvisation, combining expansive forms, gestural line, and saturated colour to create compositions that oscillated between control and spontaneity. While rooted in abstraction, his work retained a referential ambiguity, with traces of figuration, diagrammatic marks, and spatial cues emerging and receding across the surface.
Hopkins exhibited widely throughout his career, with solo exhibitions at institutions including the Serpentine Gallery, Ikon Gallery, and Kunstverein Kirchzarten. His work was also featured in major group exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Modern Art Oxford, and the Royal Academy of Arts, and is held in public and private collections internationally, including the Tate.
Born in East Sussex, Hopkins studied at the University of Reading and maintained studios in Greenwich, Deptford, and St Leonards. Alongside his practice, he was an influential educator, serving as Head of Painting at Winchester School of Art and later as Emeritus Professor at Chelsea College of Art.