Is John Hoyland our greatest abstract painter?

Well, this is what critic and author Mel Gooding sets his flag on. Hoyland was feted earlier in his career by John Russell and sprang into prominence in the 1960s. He has been absorbed into London life; however, his trajectory since the 1960s has inevitably been marked by major shifts. Hoyland maintains a European standpoint, but it was the American innovations of the later 1950s that seem to have stuck. He worked in New York in the early 1970s. But is he the greatest abstract painter here? One does not have to look far to find a rival - no less than Sir Howard Hodgkin RA. The exhibition of works by Hoyland is at Tate St Ives until 24 September.