A Yr I C H a R D S
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R AY I C H A R D S O N 1 RAY RICHARDSON BEAUX ARTS 48 Maddox Street, London. W1S 1AY London Is up For Grabs T: 020 7493 1155 [email protected] www.beauxartslondon.uk Instagram:@beauxartsgallery 5 March - 18 April 2020 Cover: Got to Step Right On 2019/20, Oil on linen, 36 x 36 ins (91 x 91 cm) Script by Jake Auerbach, Filmaker https://www.jakeauerbachfilms.com/ Photography courtesy of Nick Richards (Paintings) and George Brooks (Portrait) ISBN: 978-1-9162717-1-5. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners and publishers. Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce images in this catalogue. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and details should be addressed to the publishers. 2 1 London Is Up for Grabs Ray Richardson is essentially a London painter and a painter of London. 2019/20, Oil on board, 10 x 10 ins (25 x 25 cm) 2 3 Mykindatowns Other homegrown artists have anchored themselves here; Hogarth and Blake were moved by its people, Constable and Turner thrilled by its views. This place was once the centre of the world and the world came to witness London’s pomp; Canaletto, Pissarro, Whistler and Monet took in its panoramas and made them permanent. London was then a grand subject for a paintng, the city posed confidently and sat still for its portraits. But success brought with it the crowds and the grandeur became harder to find. 2019/20, Oil on board, 19.5 x 19.5 ins (50 x 50 cm) 4 5 Talking Loud Derain was sent to London by his dealer in 1906 but didn’t take to the place. His desire for serenity was disturbed by the throng: his paintngs seem rattled by all the activity. London had become fidgety, incapable of staying put. 2019, Oil on board, 10 x 36 ins (25 x 92 cm) 6 7 Cold Blooded Old Times Sickert delighted in the seediness of the city. He settled into the stalls of the Music Hall or headed up the stairs to the first floor back room to engage with its domestic dramas and desires. If London’s sights are seen at all in his work they are seen through the grubby windows of these shabby rooms. 2020, Oil on linen, 10 x 22 ins (25 x 56 cm) 8 9 Tumbling Dice In the second half of the 20th century, artists recorded the recovery and reconstruction after the war and then revealed the dramatic boom in the amount of cars, people and colour. 2019/20, Oil on board, 8 x 47 ins (20 x 120 cm) 10 11 Oh You Pretty Things 2019/ 20, Oil on board, 8 x 47 ins (20 x 120 cm) 12 13 Performanced Up London changes as its people change but each population leaves its mark, fertilising the ground for future generations but one constant remains… this city has always been inherently glamorous. 2019, Oil on board, 19.5 x 19.5 ins (50 x 50 cm) 14 15 Brand New Second Hand That glamour shines from Ray Richardson’s work. There is nothing that places these pictures geographically, no landmarks or famous sights but these are unmistakably London paintings. What makes them so is their magnetism, their cool, their star quality and the whiff of danger. 2019/20, Oil on linen, 60 x 72 ins (152 x 183 cm) 16 17 Sparrered Up London these days is a fancier place. As the prices rise the populations that made areas like Brixton, Brick Lane, Deptford and Stepney distinct in the 20th century are losing their character. Many Londoners have cashed in their chips and moved out… but like Ray Richardson’s marvellously pugnacious sparrows, that might now live in Kent, Essex or even Spain, they are still essentially Londoners and, like many of the characters in his paintings, you wouldn’t want to get on their bad side. 2020, Oil on board, 6 x 6 ins (15 x 15 cm) 18 19 The Young Disciples This is not the London of Knightsbridge or Mayfair but it is packed with personality and style. Everyone takes pride in their appearance, out for the day in their classic suits and cars, even in the gym the training boxers look sharp. Richardson wields glamorous flourishes from the movies and television as well as art history, mixing wide shots, closeups and impossible angles, sometimes on a single canvas. 2019/20, Oil on board, 8 x 47 ins (20 x 120 cm) 20 21 The Return of the Southpaw Over recent years a star has emerged in Richardson’s work, Brian the English Bull Terrier (“Wee Bri”). This dog is no bit part player, he has a wide range; from Everyman on the daily commute to Hero leaping gas-holders in a single bound, “Wee Bri” seems ubiquitous… making his mark but staying aloof. This detachment is important, paintings are not just descriptions they are also experiments, trying to make sense of the world and to find the artist’s place in it. I see Ray Richardson everywhere in his work, sometimes as a straighforward self-portrait at others as park footballer, confident urban casual and not least, as an English Bull Terrier. 2019, Oil on linen, 30 x 50 ins (76 x 127 cm) 22 23 Highing Fly Time Tunnel All In Your Stride Son 2019/20, Oil on linen, 36 x 36 ins (91 x 91 cm) 2019/20, Oil on board, 29.5 x 10 ins (75 x 25 cm) 2019, Oil on linen, 40 x 8 ins (101 x 20 cm) 24 25 You Could Be Anywhere These pictures are not just surface, they have substance. Though they might appear as broad colourful public displays, the moments described seem more compassionate than the wide shots of Constable or Monet; they remind one more of the intimate closeups of Sickert and Hogarth. 2020, Oil on board, 15 x 47 ins (40 x 120 cm) 26 27 The Three Ages of Man I Should Have Known Better 2019/20, Oil on linen, 40 x 20 ins (101 x 51 cm) 2019, Oil on linen, 40 x 40 ins (101 x 101 cm) 28 29 Trousered Ray Richardson’s paintings engage in a similar way, they freeze a moment from these stories we will never know… the visual equivalent of eavesdropping on a private conversation… looking for clues. 2019/20, Oil on board, 10 x 30 ins (25 x 75 cm) 30 31 Saturday’s Boys Be it walking the dog, a day trip to the coast, crossing the road, taking the tube or having a pint; Richardson takes the seemingly commonplace and fills it with the essential glamour of London. 2019, Oil on linen, 42 x 36 ins (106 x 91 cm) 32 33 Ray Richardson B.A. A.R.E. - Curriculum Vitae 2017 1964 Born Woolwich Dockyard, London Country Got Soul - Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow ¬ Jeux Sans Frontières - with Guy Denning, Galerie Raison d’Art, Lille Ce N’est Pas Un Chien Education 1984-87 Goldsmiths BA Fine Art 2016 1983-84 St Martin’s School of Art Foundation Course Fablon - with David Bray, Ben Oakley and Guy Denning, Ben Oakley Galley, London Awards You Caught Me Smilin’ Again - Zedes Art Gallery, Brussels 2012 Artist in Residence Eton College The Outer Limits - Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg 2012 Founders Painting Prize ING Discerning Eye Still Life - Style of Life - Former Galerie Alain Blondel Artists, Beauborg24, Paris 2007 Association of Painter Printmakers A.R.E. London Soul - Beaux Arts Gallery, London 2002 British Council Award 1999 British Council Award 2015 1990 BP Portrait Award Commendation Linolcut - with Picasso, Peter Blake, Sol LeWitt, Wayne Thiebaud and Gary Hume, 1989 British Council Award Paul Stolper Gallery, London Art Car Boot Fair - with Art On a Postcard, London & Margate Selected collections/commissions Kevin Foursauds - with David Bray, Ben Oakley and Guy Denning, Ben Oakley Gal- British Museum, London ley, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London Reality: Modern and Comtemporary British Painting - The Walker Art Fondation Carmignac, Paris Gallery, Liverpool The National Portrait Gallery, London London Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford 2014 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Jack Lord - Ben Oakley Gallery, London Pallant House Museum, Chichester Reality: Modern and Comtemporary British Painting - The Sainsbury Centre for Visual De Beers Diamond Trading Co., London Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich Kasen Summer Collection, Connecticut & New York I Get Along - Boycott Gallery, Brussels Isle of Man Government Collection, Isle of Man Kevin Threesauds Room To Let - with Ben Oakley and David Bray, Ben Oakley Gal- Royal Overseas League Collection, Edinburgh lery, London St George’s Hospital Trust Collection, London Ingram Collection, London 2013 University of Warwick Collection, Warwick The Dog and Crow - with Guy Denning - Ben Oakley Gallery, London Ruth Borchard Collection, London Kevin Threesauds - with Ben Oakley and David Bray - Ben Oakley Gallery, London Selected Exhibitions 2012 2020 Keep The Faith - The Drawing Schools, Eton College London Is Up For Grabs - Beaux Arts, London Everything Is Everything - Beaux Arts London, London Homecookin’ - Boycott Gallery, Brussels 2019 BP Portrait Award - National Portrait Gallery, London Brother From Another Mother - drawings with Mark Hampson, Ben Londons Topdog - Ben Oakley Gallery, London Oakley Gallery, London Never Promised Poundland - with Cathie Pilkington and Mark Hampson No Format Same Meat Different Gravy - Zedes Art Gallery, Brussels Gallery, London …And I Live By The River - Zedes Art Gallery, Brussels 2011 2019, Oil on board, 6 x 6 ins (15 x 15 cm) 2018 Londons No.One - Ben Oakley Gallery, London Made in London - Beaux Arts, London L’ironie du Sort - Boycott Gallery, Brussels 34 35 2009 Just A Little Pinch Of London - Advanced Graphics, London 1996 Music For Pleasure - Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris One Man On A Trip - Beaux Arts, London Southern Comfort - Boycott Gallery, Brussels The Luckiest Man In Two Shoes - Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris 2006 1995 Leftfield