Grosvenor Gallery presents an exhibition of works from the Estate of George Claessen, one of the most significant Sri Lankan painters of the 20th century, and a pioneer of abstraction in the region.

Claessen is an important abstract painter and was one of the nine artists who formed the highly influential '43 Group, which came together in Colombo in 1943 under the patronage of Lionel Wendt. Claessen exhibited several times with the group before moving to Australia. He would settle in the UK in 1949. He began experimenting with abstraction as early as 1948, which he would later develop alongside his figurative work. From the 1960s onwards, abstraction became his primary artistic objective.