David Troostwyk’s (1929 - 2009) work with text, objects and painting displayed a reduced elegance and focus on the way art can communicate ideas. Although pared-back, his work was moral. His succinct pictorial and linguistic vocabulary was in part indebted to his youthful employment in advertising for the London Display Company, and as a coach-painter. As a childhood evacuee from war-torn Europe, his work drew on the deep, and sometimes troubling, responses he had to 20th Century history and his inner emotional life.A leading British conceptual artist who worked with painting and text, his work is held in the Tate Gallery Collection, Arts Council Collection, Southampton City Art Gallery and private collections. Troostwyk became Head of Painting at Winchester Art School (1964-67) and later taught at various London art schools, most notably at Camberwell College of Art (1965-89).