Andrew Litten is a

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

-based English artist born in 1970 in

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

, UK. His paintings have been exhibited in the United Kingdom, including the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

in London, China, USA, Germany, Australia, Mexico, Poland and Italy. Litten attended Amersham College of Art (now Amersham & Wycombe College) in his teens but found it claustrophobic and restricting so did not continue with higher art education. He is a self-taught painter and sculptor. He moved to Cornwall in 2001 and chose to begin exhibiting. Early success came in 2003 when his work was included in an exhibition titled 'Nudes' in New York City, (along with Jacob Epstein and Pierre-Auguste Renoir) with a review in the New York Times. In 2007 Litten had his first major London exhibition with "Dog Breeder" created as an anti-art statement on the absurdity of the contemporary art world and its hierarchies. Recent work (since 2014) deals with humanistic themes such as social alienation, love, sensuality, fear, anger, loss, ageing, addiction, paranoia and other identity disturbance. His dynamic and gestural figurative paintings express a strong interest in the universal complexity of everyday existence. Sudden_Involuntary_Chemical_Withdrawal_oiloncanvas_120_x_120cm_2016

Sudden_Involuntary_Chemical_Withdrawal_oiloncanvas_120_x_120cm_2016

Early life

At the age of sixteen Litten began taking evening classes in life drawing, with an early interest in expressionist art. He then attended art college as a teenager but found it "restricting and claustrophobic" so left college with the intention of finding inspiration within commonplace life. From 1990 to 1999, he created figurative representations of the ordinary and the everyday that often conveyed emotive poignancy. Litten's paintings and assemblages at this time often referenced song titles, including 'Stepping Out' by The Fall, 'You Always Hurt The One You Love' by

The Mills Brothers The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed The Four Mills Brothers and originally known as Four Boys and a Guitar, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies and g ...

and 'Kitchen Person' by The Associates. His use of wit is a striking factor in his work at this time and is manifest in his choice of materials and their appropriateness to his subjects. Joseph Clarke wrote "in Litten's past work, the addition of hair, stuffed creatures, staples, screws, the scraps of paper or board that the work was made on, often created formal as well as emotional shift; important vehicles for helping the strange message within to reveal itself and go to work on the viewer". Often using humble domestic or found materials (including envelopes and assembled furniture parts) the work made at this time deliberately challenged ideas of art elitism and art as commodity. Retrospective exhibitions of Litten's early work have taken place at Royal Cornwall Museum and the Australia National University. Litten lived in London in the 1990s and later moved to Oxford where he worked as a photographic assistant and visits to the studio of Richard Hamilton encouraged a renewed interest in painting.

2000 to 2014

Litten moved to Cornwall in 2001 and began exhibiting with Dick The Dog and then Goldfish, along with other independent art spaces in Bristol. His work at this time is considered to be highly emotional, subversive and haunting with subject matter that hints at both our animal impulses and spiritual yearnings. His figurative representations often appear ambiguously expressive and indefinite in sex. During these years, Litten's subject matter deals with issues of voyeurism, dysfunctional sexual attachments and behaviors. Litten's visual narratives at this time are questioning and considered to defy rather than define, with a likeness to the unpunctuated texts of

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

Dog Breeder

Dog Breeder (which incorporates paint with human hair) uses a subverted sexual subtext to convey a twisted

anti-art Anti-art is a loosely used term applied to an array of concepts and attitudes that reject prior definitions of art and question art in general. Somewhat paradoxically, anti-art tends to conduct this questioning and rejection from the vantage poi ...

statement that comments on the absurdity of the contemporary art world and its hierarchies. The subject refers to the control of the art dealer over artists, and this is represented by the depiction of four sexualised dog-like figures that are on heat and clustering around one large dominant dog human. Dog Breeder was first exhibited in London, Vyner Street during Frieze art week 2007 and then in Cornwall the following year where it was described as sick and depraved.

Recent Work

Litten's dynamic and gestural figurative paintings express interest in a wide range of humanistic themes such as love, sensuality, fear, anger, loss, addiction and personal growth. His large scale gestural and impasto paintings are raw and emotive with introspective tensions that expose the visceral identity of the human subconscious. In 2018 Litten's solo exhibition was developed with support by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

. Litten's "Concerning the Fragile" works (2019 - 2020) deal with human fragility, beareavment and addiction intensified by the death of his wife, Emma, in 2019.

Selected solo exhibitions

2023 - ''Connect,'' JD Malat Gallery, London, UK 2021 - ''Fragile Together,'' JD Malat Gallery, London, UK 2020 - ''Concerning the Fragile,'' Anima Mundi, St Ives UK 2018 - ''Ordinary Bodies, Ordinary Bones,'' Anima Mundi, St Ives, UK 2018 - ''Archive (selected works 1990-99),'' Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro, UK 2018 - ''Impromptu,'' Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, Australia 2016 - ''Need,'' Patrick Davies Contemporary Art, Hertfordshire, UK 2014 - ''I Wish You Ill And Hope You Suffer As Much As I Have,'' Spike Island, Bristol, UK 2013 - ''ID Smear,'' Motorcade / FlashParade, Bristol, UK 2012 - ''Guest,'' L-13 Light Industrial Workshop, London 2012 - ''ID Smear,'' Millennium Gallery St. Ives, UK 2011 - ''This Is Real'', Oo Gallery, New York, USA 2008 - ''Paintings'', Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance, UK 2007 - ''Connect ?'' Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance, UK 2007 - ''Dog Breeder'', Lime Wharf Space, London

Selected group exhibitions

2023 - ''X'', Newcastle Contemporary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK 2022 - ''Summer Exhibition'', JD Malat Gallery, London, UK 2022 - ''Vitalistic Fantasies,'' Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK 2020 - ''Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize,'' The Gallery, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK 2017/18 - ''Contemporary Masters from Britain: 80 British Painters of the 21st Century'',

Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts The Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts (TJ Arts; ) is a public art college in Tianjin, China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it i ...

Museum, China,

Jiangsu Art Gallery Jiangsu Art Gallery, also known as Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum (), is a museum in Nanjing, in Jiangsu province in China. It was founded in 1936, during the Nanjing decade, as China's first state level museum. In 1960, it was formally renamed t ...

, Nanjing, China, Jiangsu Museum of Arts and Crafts (Artall), Nanjing, China, Yantai Art Museum, China. 2017 - ''Anything Goes'', Art Bermondsey Project Space, London. 2016 - ''Sixty,'' Lubomirov / Angus Hughes Gallery, London. 2013 - ''This Me Of Mine,'' Ipswich Art School Gallery, Suffolk Museums, Ipswich, UK. 2012 - ''Kunstfaktor'', Marzia Frozen, Berlin, Germany. 2012 - ''Accidental Genius'': Art from the Anthony Petullo Collection,

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (also referred to as MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection of over 34,000 works of art and gallery spaces totaling 150,000 sq. ft. (13,900 m²) make it the largest art museum in the state of Wis ...

, USA. 2011 - ''Afternoon Tea: Works On Paper'', WW Gallery at the 54th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

, Italy. 2011 - ''Concrete Skin'', BHVU Gallery, London. 2010 - ''No Soul For Sale / Exhibition #2,'' Museum of Everything at the

, London. 2009 - ''The Figure Show'', Jill George Gallery, London. 2008 - ''Mixed / No Theme'', Goldfish Fine Art, Penzance, UK. 2007 - ''Art Now Cornwall ?'' Goldfish fine Art, Penzance, UK. 2003 - ''Nudes'', Galerie Pelar, New York City, USA. 2002 - ''Entry'', Dick The Dog, Penzance, UK.

Selected publications

The main publications of Litten's work are: ''ID Smear'', ''Paintings'' (edited by Joseph Clarke) ''Connect?'' ''Free Range'' (edited by Joseph Clarke) ''Ordinary Bodies'' ''Everyday Means''. His artwork has been used for cover images by publishers

Faber and Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

(''Plays'' by David Farr)

Bloodaxe Books Bloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specializing in poetry. History Bloodaxe Books was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Bloodaxe moved its editorial office to Northumbe ...

(''Poems by'' Jane Griffiths) and also within various art publications.

L-13 Light Industrial Workshop L-13 Light Industrial Workshop is a contemporary art studio and publisher that opened in May 2009 in Clerkenwell, London. Founded and operated by Steve Lowe, it is a revised incarnation of his previous galleries and small presses, ‘the aquarium ...

produced a limited edition hand printed book with Litten in 2012.

Collections

, USA

The Priseman Seabrook Collection The Priseman Seabrook Collection is a British-based private collection founded by the artist Robert Priseman and his wife Ally Seabrook. It is composed of three distinct categories: 21st Century British Painting, 20th and 21st Century British Work ...

, UK Museum of Everything Exhibition #2 Falmouth Art Gallery Collection

Personal Information

Litten has lived in Fowey, Cornwall UK since 2001, he was married to Emma Neame from the four generations of the Neame family in the film business, Emma died in 2019. He is a nominated member of the Newlyn Society of Artists and Contemporary British Painting group.

References

External links

Andrew Litten

Priseman Seabrook Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Litten, Andrew Living people 21st-century British painters British male painters English painters People from Aylesbury 1970 births 21st-century British male artists