Sir Christopher Mark Le Brun PPRA (born 1951) is a British artist, known primarily as a painter. He was President of the Royal Academy of Arts from the time of his election in 2011 to December 2019. Le Brun was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the arts.

Biography

Le Brun was born in Portsmouth in 1951. From 1970-74, he studied for the DFA at

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

and for an MA at

Chelsea College of Arts Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

between 1974–75. He has taught and lectured at art schools, including Brighton,

the Slade The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, Wimbledon and

Royal Drawing School The Royal Drawing School is a not-for-profit educational organisation and registered charity in the London Borough of Hackney in England. It was founded in 2000 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and artist Catherine Goodman as The Prince ...

. His first solo exhibition was in 1980 with Nigel Greenwood Gallery and soon after he was included in international exhibitions such as the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

and ''Zeitgeist'' at

Martin-Gropius-Bau Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition building in Berlin, Germany. Originally a museum of applied arts, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstra� ...

, Berlin. His international art include,
An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture
at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York in 1984, "Avant-garde in the Eighties" at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

in 1987 and "Contemporary Voices" at MoMA in 2005. He was one of the five artists shortlisted for a monumental sculpture commission, the Ebbsfleet Landmark ( Angel of the South) in 2008. In 2011, he was the chief co-ordinator of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. On 8 December 2011, he was elected president of the Royal Academy and interviewed about his role by the Guardian Professional Networks in 2013. During his presidency, he was closely involved in the most significant redevelopment in the academy’s 250 year history. Le Brun stepped down in December 2019. He lives and works in London and is married to the artist

Charlotte Verity Charlotte Verity, Lady Le Brun (born 1954) is a painter living and working in London, UK. A monograph on her work, ''Charlotte Verity'' was published by Ridinghouse, in November 2016. Biography Born in Germany, Verity attended the Slade Scho ...

Printmaking

Le Brun is an experienced printmaker working in etching, lithography, woodcut and monotype. He had long term collaborations with Peter Kosowicz and Simon Marsh of the former Hope Sufferance Press as well as Paupers Press in London, Garner and Richard Tullis in Santa Barbara, Michael Woolworth Publications in Paris and Graphic Studio in Dublin. Most recently, he has been working to great acclaim with Paragon Press in London.

Works

*
City Wing
', 2009–13, 1,050 x 325 x 60 cm, bronze. A monumental sculpture was installed on Threadneedle Walk in Bank, London in 2013. *A cast of his large bronze sculpture, '' Union (Horse with Two Discs)'' 1999–2000, was acquired by and installed at the entrance to the

Museum of London The Museum of London is a museum in London, covering the history of the UK's capital city from prehistoric to modern times. It was formed in 1976 by amalgamating collections previously held by the City Corporation at the Guildhall Museum (fou ...

in 2005. This was Le Brun's first large scale bronze. Notable publications includ
''Seven Lithographs''
1989, ''Fifty Etchings'' 1991
''Four Riders''
1993
''Wagner''
1994
Motif Light
1998, ''Paris Lithographs'' 2000
''Fifty Etchings''
2005, ''Seri
Ludo
' 2015–2016,
Composer
' 2017,
Doubles
' 2018,
New Painting
' 2018.

Public collections

*His work can be found in museum collections including the

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York;

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, New Haven;

Tate 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 U ...

, the V&A and the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, London; and Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

References

External links

* *
Profile
on website Royal Academy of Arts *
Lisson Gallery, London

Albertz Benda, New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Brun, Christopher Living people 1951 births Artists from Portsmouth Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art English sculptors English male sculptors 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters English printmakers Royal Academicians 20th-century British sculptors 21st-century sculptors Knights Bachelor 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists Neo-expressionist artists