Peter Phillips (born 21 May 1939) is an English artist. His work ranges from conventional oils on canvas to multi-media compositions and collages to sculptures and architecture. As an originator of Pop art, Phillips trained at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

with his contemporaries

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English Painting, painter, Drawing, draughtsman, Printmaking, printmaker, Scenic design, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considere ...

, Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj and others figures in British Pop Art. When he was awarded a

Harkness Fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...

he moved to New York, where he exhibited alongside American counterparts

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein ( ; October27, 1923September29, 1997) was an American pop artist. He rose to prominence in the 1960s through pieces which were inspired by popular advertising and the comic book style. Much of his work explores the relations ...

and

James Rosenquist James Albert Rosenquist (November 29, 1933 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advert ...

. Phillips later returned to Europe, where he now resides and continues to paint and exhibit.

Biography

Phillips was born in 1939 in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. From 1953 to 1955, he studied at Moseley Road Secondary School of Art in Birmingham and from 1955 to 1959 at the

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

. In 1959, he visited Paris and started to exhibit at the RBA Galleries in London.

Sixties

Between 1959 and 1962, Phillips studied at the

where he saw reproductions of work by

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Considered a central figure in the development of American postwar art, he has been variously associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and ...

and

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...

. He was particularly aligned to American culture and reflected its commercial iconography and aggressive advertising style in his dynamic montage paintings. In 1962 he was one of the subjects of a BBC TV Monitor programme Pop Goes the Easel directed by

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of ...

, along with Peter Blake, Pauline Boty and

Derek Boshier Derek Boshier (19 June 1937 – 5 September 2024) was an English artist, among the first proponents of British pop art. Greene, Alison de Lima (2000). Texas: 150 Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers. New ...

. From 1962 to 1963, he taught at the Coventry College of Art and the Birmingham College of Art. In 1963, he was represented at the Paris Biennale, and in 1964 his work was included in the Pop Art exhibition shown at the Hague, Vienna and Berlin. In 1964, Phillips was awarded the

, which brought him to New York where he lived from 1964 until 1966 and while there travelled throughout the United States with his close friend, Allen Jones. In 1965, he had his first one-man exhibition at the Kornblee Gallery, New York. A year later, Phillips returned to Europe, and from 1968 to 1969, he was guest teacher at the

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The , also known as HFBK Hamburg, is an arts university in Hamburg, in northern Germany. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ; later it became known as . The main building, in the Uhlenhorst quarter of Hamburg-Nord borough, was designed by ...

Seventies

In 1970, Peter Phillips married Claude Marion Xylander and they made frequent trips throughout Africa, the Far East, and the United States. Throughout the decade of the seventies, the Phillips' resided in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland. In 1972, Phillips had a retrospective at the Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, and in 1976 at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

, London. In 1977 he had a retrospective in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Eighties

In 1981, Phillips' travels took him to Australia. In 1982-83 he had a retrospective exhibition shown at the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 ...

in Liverpool; the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; the

Laing Art Gallery The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, is located on New Bridge Street West. The gallery was designed in the Baroque style with Art Nouveau elements by architects Cackett & Burns Dick and is now a Grade II listed building. It ...

Newcastle-upon-Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

; the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh;

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Art Gallery and the Barbican Art Gallery in London. In 1987, Phillips moved from Zurich to

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. Throughout the eighties his work was exhibited at galleries around Spain, including Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, and Majorca.

Nineties

The decade of the nineties brought Phillips' work to Canada and the United States, for exhibitions in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and New York. He was a featured artist at the Fundacio Miro and Casal Solleric in Majorca in 1996. In 1998, he was exhibited in London at the "Freedom of Choices" exhibition. At the same time, Phillips built and expanded his property in Majorca to his own design, which has been featured in numerous architecture, gardening, and home magazines. In 1995, he designed the

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...

idents and endboards featuring the "G-arrow".

2000 – present

A Phillips retrospective was shown in 2002 at the Galleria Civica di Modena, Italy. Phillips' War/Game is featured on the cover of American rock band the Stroke's second album Room on Fire. Claude-Marion Phillips died from cancer on 30 January 2003. In 2004, Phillips staged an exhibition dedicated to his wife, Claude, at Whitford Fine Art (London) and was featured at the "Pop Art UK" group exhibition at Galleriea Civica di Modena, Italy. In 2005 the "Metamorphosis" exhibition was shown at the Goulanderis Foundation (

Andros Andros (, ) is the northernmost island of the Greece, Greek Cyclades archipelago, about southeast of Euboea, and about north of Tinos. It is nearly long, and its greatest breadth is . It is for the most part mountainous, with many fruitful and ...

, Greece) and the "British Pop" group exhibition at the Museo de Bellas Artes (

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Spain). Phillips resides in Europe, where he continues to paint and exhibit. He travels frequently to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Sydney. Over thirty of his prints are in the Tate Collection.Peter Phillips born 1939
Art & Artists (Tate.org.uk). Retrieved 2 February 2014.

References

External links

Peter Phillips
Official website
Peter Phillips
Tate Collection

Works by Peter Phillips at Alan Wheatley Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Peter 1939 births Alumni of the Royal College of Art Harkness Fellows Living people Artists from Birmingham, West Midlands English contemporary artists Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Academics of the Birmingham School of Art British collage artists 20th-century British painters 21st-century British painters