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- John Piper
- Also known as
-
John Piper
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primary name: Piper, John
- Details
- individual; painter/draughtsman; printmaker; British; Male
- Life dates
- 1903-1992
- Biography
- Painter, printmaker,designer of stained glass and theatre, writer.
Born 1903, Epsom. Worked in his father's solicitor's office 1921-6 before studing at Richmond and Kingston Schools of Art and at the Royal College of Art 1927-9. He married firstly the artist, Eileen Holding, and secondly in 1937, Myfanwy Evans (Myfanwy Piper q.v.). His first one-man show of collages and drawings held at the London Gallery, 1938. Member of the London Group, 1933; the 7 & 5 Society 1934-5.Wrote for the Athenaeum, New Statesman, Architectural Review and with his wife produced Axis - the quarterly review. Commissioned by John Betjeman to write the 'Shell Guide to Oxfordshire'. Further solo exhibitions at the Leicester Galleries 1940-60. Appointed official war artist 1940-2. 1942 published 'English Romantic Artists', 1942. Member of the Royal Fine Art Commission, Trustee of the Tate Gallery, member of the Arts Council. Companion of Honour, 1972. Retrospective exhibitions: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1979; Tate Gallery, 1983.
Died at Fawley Bottom, Oxfordshire.
Centenary exhibitions held in 2003 at Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham; Pallant House, Chicester. His work is held by Tate Gallery, Arts Council, British Museum and several provincial galleries.
- Bibliography
- J. Betjeman: 'John Piper' (Harmondsworth, 1944)
S. J. Woods: 'John Piper: Paintings, Drawings and Theatre Designs, 1932–1954' (London and New York, 1955)
J. Rothenstein: 'Modern English Painters, Vol. 3: Wood to Hockney' (London and New York, 1974), pp. 86–99
A. West: 'John Piper' (London, 1979)
'John Piper' (exh. cat., ed. D. Fraser Jenkins; London, Tate, 1983)
Frances Spalding 'John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art' (OUP 2009)
O. Levinson, ed.: 'John Piper, the Complete Graphic Works: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1923–1983' (London, 1987)