Peter McArdle (born 17 December 1965) is an English artist, member of the Stuckists art group, and gallery owner.Milner, Frank (Editor). ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'', p. 96, National Museums Liverpool, 2004. . The biography o
stuckism.com
is based on that in the book.

Life and career

Peter McArdle was born in

Tynemouth Tynemouth () is a coastal town in the metropolitan borough of North Tyneside, in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the north side of the mouth of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne, hence its name. It is east-northeast of Newcastle up ...

. He finished St. Aidan's RC School (

Ashbrooke Ashbrooke is a residential area of Sunderland, North East England directly south and south-west of the city centre. Ashbrooke developed through the Victorian era as Sunderland's first suburb. Originally occupied by large middle-class familie ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

) in 1983, at which point he began to get sales for his paintings, which have supported him since. He gained a National Diploma in Art and Design at

Newcastle College Newcastle College is a large further education and higher education college in Newcastle upon Tyne, with more than 16,000 students enrolled each year on a variety of full time, part time, and distance learning. It is the largest further education ...

of Art and Design, 1983–85, then attended the

University of Sunderland The University of Sunderland is a public research university located in Sunderland in the North East of England. Its predecessor, Sunderland Technical College, was established as a municipal training college in 1901. It gained university status ...

, from which he graduated in 1992. From 1992, he showed at Mark Jason Fine Art in

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

, London. In 1989, he was on the shortlist for the Winsor & Newton Young Artist Award. In 1997, during the Year of Visual Art, he was commissioned for work by the Tyne & Wear Development Corporation. He also received commissions from Arts Resource, Sunderland, and the City Council.Buckman, David. ''Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945: Volume 2'', p. 997, Art Dictionaries, Bristol, 2006. From 1990, he participated also in group shows, including the ''Discerning Eye'' show at the Mall Galleries, London. 2007 A Gallery

In 2003 he founded The

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Stuckists group and was exhibited at the

Stuckism International Gallery The Stuckism International Gallery was the gallery of the Stuckism, Stuckist art movement. It was open from 2002 to 2005 in Shoreditch, and was run by Charles Thomson (artist), Charles Thomson, the co-founder of Stuckism. It was launched by a p ...

. He was a featured artist in ''

The Stuckists Punk Victorian ''The Stuckists Punk Victorian'' was the first national gallery exhibition of Stuckist art.Moss, Richard"Stuckist's Punk Victorian gatecrashes Walker's Biennial Culture24, 17 September 2004. Retrieved 3 December 2009. It was held at the Walker A ...

'' show 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 ...

for the 2004

Liverpool Biennial Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom. Since its launch in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 380 new artworks and presented work by over 530 artists from around the world. ...

, and was one of the ten "leading Stuckists" in '' Go West'' at Spectrum London gallery in 2006. In 2007, he was shown in ''I Won't Have Sex with You as Long as We're Married'' at the A Gallery. In 2007, he became Head of the Foundation course at Northumberland College, and Fine Art lecturer on the BA course there."Biography"
stuckism.com. Retrieved 19 March 2008.

Art

He is a dedicated worker, and has painted seven days a week and starting as early as 4 am."Peter McArdle"
,

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool in Merseyside, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The mu ...

. Retrieved 19 March 2008. He paints in oil with traditional glazing techniques, taking six months or more per painting, sometimes working with a 000 ("cat's whisker") sable brush. A burnt umber underpainting can have up to seventeen layers of glazing. He rejects a third of the finished paintings. Images are mostly one or several figures in an empty room, often seemingly unaware of each other's presence, and given titles that are equally enigmatic. He has said that the images "hover on the frontier between the familiar and the enigmatic, addressing a range of contemporary issues. They are an endless and imperceptible moving to and fro between dream and reality", and also that they draw on his personal experience, as well as art history and

mass media Mass media include the diverse arrays of media that reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit information electronically via media such as films, radio, recorded music, or television. Digital media comprises b ...

popular culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art

f. pop art F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet. F may also refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems * ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function * F-distributi ...

or mass art, sometimes contraste ...

, acknowledging the difficulty of his work, which requires time and engagement from the viewer. He was reviewed by Paul Clark in the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' as "a top draughtsman with a funky fluid style" and in '' Art Review'' as someone who "augurs well for the future of British painting".''

'', 10 January 2001 and '' Art Review'' (undated), cited by

Charles Thomson Charles Thomson (November 29, 1729 – August 16, 1824) was an Irish-born Founding Father of the United States and secretary of the Continental Congress (1774–1789) throughout its existence. As secretary, Thomson prepared the Journals of the ...

in "Daubs and Daubers" o
stuckism.com
Retrieved 19 March 2008.

Gallery

Image:Peter McArdle, The Silence Between.jpg, ''Silence Between'' Image:Peter McArdle, His Muse.jpg, ''His Muse''

Notes and references

External links

Peter McArdle's website

The Stuckists Punk Victorian, Walker GalleryStuckismPeter McArdle at A Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:McArdle, Peter 1965 births Living people 20th-century English painters English male painters 21st-century English painters English modern painters Stuckism Alumni of the University of Sunderland People from Tynemouth English contemporary artists 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists