Hugely admired by artists and writers from Henri Cartier Bresson to the Booker prize winner Howard Jacobson, the extraordinary life and work of painter Dennis Creffield (1931-2018) are explored in this, the first major monograph on the artist. The narrative traces the artist's 'Dickensian' upbringing, his formative experiences as a teenager under the tutelage of David Bomberg, his conversion to Catholicism and his award-winning years at the Slade. Focus is given to Creffield's passions for the stories of England, not only in the Cathedral drawings, but in his expressive work on Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, on Blake and in his paintings and drawings of London, the great Petworth House, Cornish tin mines and the eerie military buildings on Orford Ness. Complementing his work on England's sacred and profane identity is an equally audacious body of work on the human body, from tender paintings of mother and child to erotic paintings of women to his late paintings of men near death - Turner, Nelson and Rimbaud. To quote his fellow artist R.B. Kitaj, Creffield's cover has been 'well and truly blown.'
Richard Cork is an award-winning art critic, historian, broadcaster and curator. He has been art critic for the Evening Standard and the Times, among others. Alongside academic posts and curating exhibitions for venues including Tate and the National Gallery, he is author of numerous books, including his ground-breaking study of David Bomberg, and has been awarded the Llewellyn Rhys Prize, the Banister Fletcher Award and the Art Fund Award. He is also Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy.
Preface; 1: Boyhood, Bomberg and the Borough; 2: Discovering Italy, Stockholm, Spain and Marriage; 3: Studying at the Slade and Moving to Leeds; 4: Release in Brighton, Love Paintings and Parents with Children; 5: Exploring English Cathedrals in a Camper-Van; 6: Obsessed with Shakespeare and A Midsummer Night's Dream; 7: Travelling to French Cathedrals in a Dormobile; 8: Finding National Trust Treasures and Living at Petworth; 9: Visiting Jerusalem and Brooding on Atom Bombs; 10: Investigating Tate, New York, Rome and St Paul's; 11: Roaming around Castles and Communing with Blake; 12: Admiring Nelson and Marrying Tess; Epilogue; Notes; Chronology; Select Solo and Group exhibitions; Public Collections; Index
