The son of a solicitor, John Piper became an articled clerk in his father's firm, for which he worked until his father's death in 1928. Aged 25 he decided to become an artist and trained at the Kingston and Richmond Schools of Art, at the Royal College where Henry Moore was a teacher, and at the Slade in 1930.

In the early 1930's he became absorbed in the abstract movement of which Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth were leaders and was strengthened in this direction by a visit to Paris in 1933, when he met Braque, Brancusi, Leger and Helion.

In the late 1930's he more and more abandoned the abstract, reverting to representational landscape. His romantic fantasies on great houses and churches in decay earned him a comparison with Piranesi and his paintings of bomb-devastated buildings during the war won high praise.

Piper has been called "the most versatile visual man of his generation". He has done book illustration, stage design, designed pottery, tapestry, ceramics, stained glass windows, textiles, and has written on the arts and on the countryside.

His first London one-man exhibition was at the London Gallery in 1938 and his first New York exhibition at the Curt Valentin Gallery in 1948.

A retrospective exhibition was given by the Marlborough Gallery of Fine Art in 1964. He has been exhibited very frequently in Britain, on the Continent and in America and his works are represented in many major public collections. He was made a Companion of Honour in 1972.