Artist

Patrick Caulfield

1936–2005

Patrick Caulfield (b. 1936, London, England; d. 2005, London, England) is a British painter and printmaker known for his pared down, still lifes and interiors, carefully composed with thick black lines and even fields of colour. Human figures are rarely depicted, but tell-tale signs of human presence abound in Caulfield’s enigmatic world. Often, it is impossible to resolve perspective in his painting, an effect mirrored by the depiction of hidden spaces: jugs, pots, windows and blind corners. At the Royal College of Art, Caulfield was a contemporary of R.B. Kitaj, David Hockney, Allen Jones, Derek Boshier, and Peter Phillips. Although Caulfield came to be associated with British Pop art after participating in the Whitechapel Gallery’s The New Generation exhibition in 1964, he saw himself as a formalist painter working in the tradition of Braque, Gris and Matisse. Admired by fellow artists throughout his time, Caulfield worked privately and painstakingly until each picture was fully resolved, leaving nothing to chance. In his later work, Caulfield introduced elements of photorealism and trompe-l’oeil to further undermine the illusionary power painting.

 

Caulfield studied at Chelsea School of Art (1956–60) and the Royal College of Art (1960–63), subsequently teaching at Chelsea from 1963 until 1971. His first solo exhibition was at the Robert Fraser Gallery, London in 1965. He took part in many solo and group exhibitions both in Britain and internationally. Important group exhibitions in which he participated include the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1964) and the Royal Academy of Arts, London (1987).  In 1991 Caulfield took part in Pop Art, again at the Royal Academy of Arts, which toured to Museum Ludwig, Cologne and Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid. Retrospectives of his work have been held at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, touring to the Tate Gallery, London (1981) and at the Serpentine Gallery, London (1992–93). A major retrospective of Caulfield’s paintings, organised by the British Council, was shown at the Hayward Gallery, London, in 1999, and subsequently toured to the Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut (1999–2000). In 1987, Caulfield was nominated for the Turner Prize for his show The Artists’s Eye at the National Gallery in London, and in 1996 he was made a CBE. In 2013, Tate Britain hosted a major survey exhibition of Caulfield’s work.

 

Patrick Caulfield is represented worldwide by Waddington Custot. 

 

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Patrick Caulfield: Morning, Noon and Night

Waddington Custot
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Caulfield works acquired by Pallant House Gallery

From the collection of MJ Long and Sir Colin St John Wilson

A collection of Pop art and British figurative art, with over 175 paintings, prints and sculptures, has been allocated to Pallant House Gallery from the estate of the architect MJ Long via the Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) scheme, run by the Arts Council.

 

The Wilson collection includes celebrated works by some of the most important figures in Modern British art, including Michael Andrews, Patrick Caulfield, Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Anthony Caro, Prunella Clough, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Howard Hodgkin, R.B. Kitaj, Eduardo Paolozzi and Colin Self.

 

Within the collection their is a particularly strong group of works by Patrick Caulfield, including the artist’s well-known Coloured Still Life (1967), which is accompanied by his later painting Kellerbar (1997) along with twelve preparatory drawings and seven screenprints that provide a fascinating insight into the artist’s working methods.

 

Simon Martin, Director, Pallant House Gallery said: “We are thrilled to have acquired such an extraordinary collection of modern art for the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. MJ Long and Colin St John Wilson were much loved and respected figures in the worlds of art and architecture, leaving behind not only extraordinary public buildings and private studios, but amassing an astonishing collection of British Pop and figurative art. To be able to preserve this almost in its entirety is cause for great celebration at a very difficult time for public museums and galleries. We look forward to reopening with many of these works on display amongst our collection of Modern British art.”

 

 

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