School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Derrick Greaves at 80

Prints, Drawings and Fine Art Books

2008

A painter and printmaker, Derrick Greaves’ work gained critical acclaim in the 1950s as a member of the Beaux Arts Quartet, the so-called ‘Kitchen Sink’ realist painters who emanated from the Royal College of Art (1948–52). Greaves (b.1927) and his contemporaries at the Royal College — John Bratby, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith — first exhibited together at the ‘Young Contemporaries’ in the R.B.A. Galleries in January 1952 and were taken on by Helen Lessore at the Beaux Arts Gallery.


The herd moves on, Elephants, 2002

The herd moves on, Elephants, 2002



Greaves was awarded the Abbey Major Scholarship in 1952 and went to Italy for two years. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Painting at the Moscow Youth Festival in 1953. He was chosen to represent Britain in the Venice Biennale international art exhibition in 1956. Despite his reputation as a painter Derrick Greaves is an important printmaker. A consummate draughtsman, the discipline of print has consistently satisfied his graphic needs.


'Garden - Screenprint and watercolour work by Derrick Greaves, 2002

'Garden - Screenprint and watercolour work by Derrick Greaves, 2002



The exhibition includes the series of seven monoprints depicting Armenian peasants produced for his solo exhibition at the Zwemmer Gallery, London in 1958 and the screen prints inspired by Pierre Loüys’s Chansons de Bilitis (1978/9). Greaves has been concerned to develop an idea or theme in a graphic medium following the Vollard concept of the ‘suite’ of prints. He taught part-time at St Martin’s School of Art (1954–64), Maidstone College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools during the 1960s and was Head of Printmaking at Norwich School of Art (1983–91) in the department he set up. He continues to live and work in Norfolk.



 
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