Tony Bevan
A leading figurative painter, Tony Bevan, trained
at Bradford Regional College of Art from 1971 to
1974.
Born in Bradford in 1951, Tony went to Bradford Regional College of Art in 1971,
and went on to train at Goldsmiths and the Slade School of Fine Art in 1974. One of
Britain’s leading figurative painters, his work is bold and expressive often exploring
desolation and despair.
Bevan is fascinated by the human form, often heads with elongated necks are
stretched into blank canvas .In his early work he painted single figures in a manner that
suggested extreme psychological states. His media is usually a combination of charcoal
and individually mixed acrylic paints.
“In general I start working from drawings which are charcoal on paper. Sometimes I
also draw straight on the canvas which I wet so the charcoal soaks into the fibres. I
make my own paint using pigment and medium ... I find the behavioural patterns of
charcoal fascinating and the possibilities of paint endless ... Colour has an attachment
with emotions and certain meanings. The saturation of the colour in the backgrounds
is almost like the colour of the air around the person.”
During the 1980s and 90s Bevan’s portraits developed a psychological style often
working on a series of poses over and over again. Bevan’s work is often compared to that
of Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud, the portraits often displaying anxiety and despair.
From the mid-1990s he also worked on architectural themes, expressing similar
states of desolation, the use of thick charcoal and heavily pigmented paint to
capture extreme emotional states. Structural elements of interiors are reproduced in
monochrome creating pattern and more recently subject matter has included the ‘still
life’ works of studio furniture.
Tony exhibits on a regular basis nationally and internationally. His work is held in
collections all over the world including the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery.