ONE of Britain’s most respected painters has returned to his roots with a new exhibition at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

Teesside-born Basil Beattie is an influential painter in the UK and internationally, having contributed to the development of the post-Second World War pictorial tradition with a personal approach to abstract expressionism.

Though less known to the public, he taught many of today’s prominent names over three decades at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The exhibition at mima, When Now Becomes Then: Three Decades, is a retrospective of work since the 1980s and encapsulates much of the 81-year-old’s distinguished career.

Beattie has addressed abstract expressionism since starting out as an artist but his take is a personal one, with references to the western pictorial tradition and everyday life combined through an existential approach.

His works convey feelings of imprisonment or freedom, encapsulating a spiritual engagement with the world, and explore various themes and formal issues. Grid structures are associated with primitive motifs and architectural references include ziggurats, steps, ladders and tunnels.

Director Alistair Hudson said: “We are committed to presenting a range of diverse practices in contemporary art and what better example is there than an artist who started in our region.

"Beattie’s works are not only illustrative of a prominent career, they are truly influential to the new generations of British artists, many of whom were his students.”

After attending West Hartlepool College of Art from 1950-55, Beattie was part of a group of British artists influenced the abstract expressionism movement that flourished in the US in the late 1940s and 1950s.

He went on to have a long teaching career from the 1960s to 1990s, most notably at Goldsmiths, before retiring in 1998.

He was shortlisted for the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1998 and 2001 in addition to the Charles Wollaston Prize in 2000. His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are part of public and private collections, including the Tate, the Arts Council, Saatchi and Jerwood.

Beattie said: “The works speak of human qualities of being, emotional and psychological. Signs and metaphors play a part in them, but it is the way the images are formed that is crucial in bringing them to a visual point of memorable potency."

When Now Becomes Then: Three Decades runs until Sunday, June 12.