Biography
Michael Canney (b. Falmouth, Cornwall, UK 1923 - d. Devizes, Devon, UK 1999) studied at Redruth School of Art, Penzance School of Art and St Ives School of Painting, under Leonard Fulle. After WW2 he went to at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art, London as well as doing postgraduate study at Patrick Allan-Fraser School of Art, Hospitalfield, Arbroath, Scotland. From around 1952, Canney started making reliefs and pursued neo-Cubist work. In 1956 he was appointed curator of Newlyn Art Gallery, supplementing his income with documentary programmes for radio and television.
In 1964–5 Canney taught part-time at Plymouth College of Art and he was appointed visiting gallery director and lecturer at University of California, Santa Barbara, 1965. In 1966 Canney joined the staff of West of England College of Art (subsequently Bristol Polytechnic) until 1983. In 1984 he chose to live in Italy, in a village between San Gimignano and Siena, continuing to paint, but in 1985 scripted a documentary film for television on painting in Newlyn which won an award in New York. Canney exhibited regularly at group exhibitions and had solo shows at Newlyn Art Gallery (1983); Prescote Art and Design, Edinburgh (1984); and Belgrave Gallery (from 1990). In 2003, the Paris-based dealer Martin du Louvre held an exhibition of Canney’s late works (1973–93) and began to promote him internationally. Katharine House Gallery, Marlborough, Wiltshire gave Canney a 1940s–1990s retrospective in 2005. Mondriaanhuis, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Plymouth City Art Gallery and several other public collections hold his work.
