David Shaw (painter)
Encyclopedia
David Shaw painter, print-maker and lecturer.
David Douglas Ernest Shaw, the son of William Shaw by his wife Alice Frid, was born, lived and died in Kent.
Educated at Canterbury College of Art
from 1970–73; he returned there around 1984 as a lecturer in the fine art department and drawing tutor to graphics department.
(Addresses included Doghouse Farm, Petham
, Canterbury (c1976), and The Mill House, Kennington
, Ashford (1980s-death)).
: in Art & Artists 1982:
But these paintings have another dimension-they are not only prose, but poetry.... these pictures are therefore memorable not only for their remarkable technical accomplishment but because they leave such a long and lingering echo in our minds;
The clean, powerful draughtsmanship which Shaw brought to these pictures [de Louville's Ebury gallery 1982] provided part of the inspiration for a mixed exhibition of male nudes, as the quality of his work, and also the response it received, suggested that the time had come for a reconsideration of the subject
(chairman), John Russell-Taylor
, Dr John George (editor of Art & Artists), Emmanuel Cooper
, and Edward Lucie-Smith
.
Apart from Shaw the exhibition featured pictures by the following:
Aldo Semenzato, Beryl Cook
, Patrick Procktor
, Manuel Cancel, Diccon Swan, Sandra Fisher, Philip Coxe, Polly Hope, Sarah Lloyd, Harry Holland, George Beven, Maggi Hambling
, Michael Leonard
, Harry Buckinx, Anna Maria Hancke, Craigie Aitchison
, Duggie Fields
, Elizabeth Frink, Val Archer, Mario Dubsky, David Hockney
, Duncan Grant
, Delmar Howe, R. B. Kitaj
, Andreas Moureal, Barney Wan, Jill Tweed, and Dhruma Mistry.
Shaw's contributions to the show were:
A short introduction to the catalogue was provided by fellow Kentish painter John Stanton Ward, RA (1917–2007), who began: I used to see David Shaw bring his pictures to my son's workshop for framing and so came to know both him and his painting. A framer's a good place to meet painters and see their work....
Works in oil or acrylic-on-canvas, board or paper included:
Fidelio, All Hearts, Virgin and Shadow, Vesuvius (1983), Apollo Holding the String, Icarus, Bird and Fish and Mountains, Circus of Bread (Meccano) (1982), Terminal Street (1981), Circle of Bread, Narcissus Nuzzled by Goldfish, The Clown Chaos, Perseus and Andromeda, Come and Play (1983), Girl with Saucers, Art Ghetto (1987), Leonora, The Children in the Apple Tree (1985–86), Sleeping, Mortal Coil (1984), Study for Mildred's, Study for Gladiator, Nijinsky Dreams of Dolphins (1985), Miss Phoebe, Cover the Waterfront, The Playground, Venus Lux Amoris (1985), Invisible Bird (1981), The Clown Chaos, Sty Window (July 1978), Scarecrow, Nijinsky 4, Meniscus (caught napping) (1983), In Balance (1983), Mannequin, Balcony Balloon (1981), Pyjama Game (1981), Fragile (1979), Astound Me (Joke Version).
Screenprints
or serigraphs in the sale included copies of:
East/West I (1986), Babel
by Day (1987), Babel by Night (1987), Cocteau Holy Ghosts, Fidelio III, Fidelio I, Faerie, Nijinsky's
Room, Sunset over Babel, Sphinx
Analog, along with the lithograph
L'homme et le Pantin inert.
David Douglas Ernest Shaw, the son of William Shaw by his wife Alice Frid, was born, lived and died in Kent.
Educated at Canterbury College of Art
Kent Institute of Art & Design
The Kent Institute of Art & Design was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone College of Art and Rochester College of Art...
from 1970–73; he returned there around 1984 as a lecturer in the fine art department and drawing tutor to graphics department.
(Addresses included Doghouse Farm, Petham
Petham
Petham is a small village and civil parish in the North Downs, five miles south of Canterbury in Kent, South East England.The village church is All Saints Church, which was built in the 13th century but suffered from a fire in 1922 and had to be reconstructed...
, Canterbury (c1976), and The Mill House, Kennington
Kennington, Kent
Kennington is a suburb of Ashford in Kent, England. It is about a mile northeast of the town centre and north of the M20 motorway, and contains the 12th century church, St Mary's. The main A28 Canterbury Road and A251 Faversham Road run through the village...
, Ashford (1980s-death)).
Critical description
Edward Lucie-SmithEdward Lucie-Smith
John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith is a British writer, poet, art critic, curator, broadcaster and author of exhibition catalogues.-Biography:Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946...
: in Art & Artists 1982:
But these paintings have another dimension-they are not only prose, but poetry.... these pictures are therefore memorable not only for their remarkable technical accomplishment but because they leave such a long and lingering echo in our minds;
The clean, powerful draughtsmanship which Shaw brought to these pictures [de Louville's Ebury gallery 1982] provided part of the inspiration for a mixed exhibition of male nudes, as the quality of his work, and also the response it received, suggested that the time had come for a reconsideration of the subject
Male Nude
Shaw had six works in The Male Nude, A modern view, organised by Francis de Louville and held at Homeworks, Pimlico Road, London it ran from November 15, 1983 – January 1984. De Louville was aided by Mary-Rose BeaumontTimothy Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley
Timothy Wentworth Beaumont, Baron Beaumont of Whitley was a United Kingdom politician and an Anglican clergyman. He was politically active, successively, in the Liberal Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party...
(chairman), John Russell-Taylor
John Russell Taylor
John Russell Taylor is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such important figures in Anglo-American film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, and Ingrid Bergman; of Strangers in Paradise: The...
, Dr John George (editor of Art & Artists), Emmanuel Cooper
Emmanuel Cooper
Emmannuel Cooper OBE is a British studio potter and writer on arts and crafts.Cooper studied at the University for the Creative Arts. He also achieved a PhD degree at Middlesex University....
, and Edward Lucie-Smith
Edward Lucie-Smith
John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith is a British writer, poet, art critic, curator, broadcaster and author of exhibition catalogues.-Biography:Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946...
.
Apart from Shaw the exhibition featured pictures by the following:
Aldo Semenzato, Beryl Cook
Beryl Cook
Beryl Cook, OBE was an English artist best known for comical paintings of people she encountered in her home city. She had no formal training and did not take up painting until middle age.- Early life :...
, Patrick Procktor
Patrick Procktor
Patrick Procktor RA was a prominent English artist of the late 20th century.-Early life:Patrick Procktor was born in Dublin, the younger son of an oil company accountant, but moved to London when his father died in 1940...
, Manuel Cancel, Diccon Swan, Sandra Fisher, Philip Coxe, Polly Hope, Sarah Lloyd, Harry Holland, George Beven, Maggi Hambling
Maggi Hambling
Maggi Hambling CBE is an English painter and sculptor. Perhaps her best known public works are a memorial to Oscar Wilde in central London and Scallop, a 4 metre high steel sculpture of two interlocking scallop shells on Aldeburgh beach dedicated to Benjamin Britten...
, Michael Leonard
Michael Leonard
Michael Leonard is a male field hockey defender from Scotland, who earned his first cap for the Men's National Team in 1996. He plays club hockey for Grange HC. Leonard has also been capped six times for the Scotland ‘B’ cricket team.-References:*...
, Harry Buckinx, Anna Maria Hancke, Craigie Aitchison
Craigie Aitchison (painter)
Craigie Aitchison, RA, CBE was a Scottish painter. He was known for his many paintings of the Crucifixion, one of which hangs behind the altar in the chapter house of Liverpool Cathedral.-Education:...
, Duggie Fields
Duggie Fields
Duggie Fields is a British artist, born in Tidworth in 1945 and resident in London, in the Earls Court area.He spent his youth in the English countryside with his family, then briefly studied architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic...
, Elizabeth Frink, Val Archer, Mario Dubsky, David Hockney
David Hockney
David Hockney, CH, RA, is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer and photographer, who is based in Bridlington, Yorkshire and Kensington, London....
, Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
, Delmar Howe, R. B. Kitaj
R. B. Kitaj
Ronald Brooks Kitaj was an American artist who spent much of his life in England.-Life:Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, near Cleveland, United States, his Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne Brooks, shortly after he was born and they were divorced in 1934. His mother was the...
, Andreas Moureal, Barney Wan, Jill Tweed, and Dhruma Mistry.
Shaw's contributions to the show were:
- Sleep, 13 x 20 inches, pencil on paper, 1983;
- Meccano, 36 x 42 inches, acrylic on canvas 1982;
- Study for Sway/Wild horses;
- Sway/Wild Horses, acrylic on canvas, 44 x 46 inches, 1983;
- In Balance, acrylic on canvas, 38 x 38 inches, 1983; and the lithograph,
- L'homme et le Pantin-inert, 16 x 17 inches, 1982 (edition of 75).
Shaw Studio sale
Shaw's studio sale was held at Bonham's, Lots Road, London on 15 December 1994. The whole studio, divided by Bonham's into sixty lots, had been left to the Artists General Benevolent Fund.A short introduction to the catalogue was provided by fellow Kentish painter John Stanton Ward, RA (1917–2007), who began: I used to see David Shaw bring his pictures to my son's workshop for framing and so came to know both him and his painting. A framer's a good place to meet painters and see their work....
Works in oil or acrylic-on-canvas, board or paper included:
Fidelio, All Hearts, Virgin and Shadow, Vesuvius (1983), Apollo Holding the String, Icarus, Bird and Fish and Mountains, Circus of Bread (Meccano) (1982), Terminal Street (1981), Circle of Bread, Narcissus Nuzzled by Goldfish, The Clown Chaos, Perseus and Andromeda, Come and Play (1983), Girl with Saucers, Art Ghetto (1987), Leonora, The Children in the Apple Tree (1985–86), Sleeping, Mortal Coil (1984), Study for Mildred's, Study for Gladiator, Nijinsky Dreams of Dolphins (1985), Miss Phoebe, Cover the Waterfront, The Playground, Venus Lux Amoris (1985), Invisible Bird (1981), The Clown Chaos, Sty Window (July 1978), Scarecrow, Nijinsky 4, Meniscus (caught napping) (1983), In Balance (1983), Mannequin, Balcony Balloon (1981), Pyjama Game (1981), Fragile (1979), Astound Me (Joke Version).
Screenprints
Screen-printing
Screen printing is a printing technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink-blocking stencil. The attached stencil forms open areas of mesh that transfer ink or other printable materials which can be pressed through the mesh as a sharp-edged image onto a substrate...
or serigraphs in the sale included copies of:
East/West I (1986), Babel
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
by Day (1987), Babel by Night (1987), Cocteau Holy Ghosts, Fidelio III, Fidelio I, Faerie, Nijinsky's
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations...
Room, Sunset over Babel, Sphinx
Sphinx
A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
Analog, along with the lithograph
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
L'homme et le Pantin inert.
Group exhibitions
- RARoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
1976, no. 992, Wattle Hurdle, pencil; - Galerie Mathilde, Amsterdam, 1979;
- Bede Gallery, JarrowJarrowJarrow is a town in Tyne and Wear, England, located on the River Tyne, with a population of 27,526. From the middle of the 19th century until 1935, Jarrow was a centre for shipbuilding, and was the starting point of the Jarrow March against unemployment in 1936.-Foundation:The Angles re-occupied...
, 1979; - P.S. Galleries, Dallas, 1981 & 1983;
- P.S. Galleries, Maine, 1982;
- November 15, 1983 - March 1984, six works in The Male Nude, A modern view, at Homeworks, Pimlico Road, London, organised by Francois de Louville, Mary-Rose Beaumont (chairman), John Russell-TaylorJohn Russell TaylorJohn Russell Taylor is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such important figures in Anglo-American film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, and Ingrid Bergman; of Strangers in Paradise: The...
, Dr John George (editor of Art & Artists), Emmanuel CooperEmmanuel CooperEmmannuel Cooper OBE is a British studio potter and writer on arts and crafts.Cooper studied at the University for the Creative Arts. He also achieved a PhD degree at Middlesex University....
, Edward Lucie-SmithEdward Lucie-SmithJohn Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith is a British writer, poet, art critic, curator, broadcaster and author of exhibition catalogues.-Biography:Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946...
, & Francois de Louville.
Solo shows
- Aberbach Fine Art, 17 Savile Row, London, 1977, 1978, 1980;
- Ebury Gallery, 89 Ebury Street, London, 1982 L'homme et le Pantin;
- Thumb Gallery [Jill George], 20/21 D'Arbaly Street, Soho, London, 1985;
- Henley FestivalHenley FestivalThe Henley Festival of Music and the Arts is held each July in England on the Berkshire bank of the River Thames, at the same spot and using adapted facilities from the Henley Royal Regatta, which is held the week before....
, Pastoral Perspectives 1973-1985; in tandem with works by John PiperJohn Piper (artist)John Egerton Christmas Piper, CH was a 20th-century English painter and printmaker. For much of his life he lived at Fawley Bottom in Buckinghamshire, near Henley-on-Thames.-Life:...
; - Line Art Gallery (part of Art Line Magazine), 1-3 Garratt Lane, SW18, Serigraphs, January 1988.
Texts
- The Male Nude, A modern view, organised by Francois de Louville, etal. Text and introduction by Edward Lucie-Smith, Phaidon Press, Oxford or Rizzoli International, 1985. (Retrospective catalogue of an exhibition which opened on November 15, 1983 and closed January 1984, at Homeworks, Pimlico Road, London);
- Obituary in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 8 January 1990, by Emmanuel CooperEmmanuel CooperEmmannuel Cooper OBE is a British studio potter and writer on arts and crafts.Cooper studied at the University for the Creative Arts. He also achieved a PhD degree at Middlesex University....
and Nicholas de JonghNicholas de JonghNicholas de Jongh is a British theatre critic and playwright. He served as the senior drama critic of the Evening Standard from 1991 to 2009. Prior to that, he worked for the Guardian newspaper for almost 20 years...
; - Bonham's Lots Road, London. David Shaw studio sale, 15 December 1994, 2pm. Catalogued by James Ulph.