John Bratby (1928-1992)

1928 - 1992

John Randall Bratby was born on 19th July 1928 in Wimbledon, South-West London. His childhood was chaotic and unhappy. He went to the Tiffin Boys School, Kingston, where he indulged in various schooltime enterprises such as re-selling buns during break. He was conscripted but discharged due to extreme myopia and managed to obtain an ex-service grant to study at Kingston College of Art between 1949 -1950. He then attended the Royal College of Art until 1954, studying under mentor Carel Weight, who claimed he was the most talented student he ever had. He had his first solo exhibition during that year at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London. He was awarded a bursary during his college years to travel to Italy, but the experience did nothing to inspire him socially, artistically or to continue any future travelling of note. John Bratby, quite simply, was a British man, whose work was prolific, colourful, as was he and his lifestyle, recording everyday life in an autobiographical way, painting portraits of himself, his family and celebrities who flocked to him, attracted by his unconventional approach to life so prevalent in the fifties and the sixties. He was the founding member of the Kitchen sink Realism style. This term is applied to a group of British artists working in the 1950’s who painted ordinary people in scenes of everyday life. Other exponents were Edward Middleditch, Jack Smith and Derrick Greaves. It was a derogatory term, coined by the art critic David Sylvester who suggested that there was ... show more

John Randall Bratby was born on 19th July 1928 in Wimbledon, South-West London. His childhood was chaotic and unhappy. He went to the Tiffin Boys School, Kingston, where he indulged in various schooltime enterprises such as re-selling buns during break. He was conscripted but discharged due to extreme myopia and managed to obtain an ex-service grant to study at Kingston College of Art between 1949 -1950. He then attended the Royal College of Art until 1954, studying under mentor Carel Weight, who claimed he was the most talented student he ever had. He had his first solo exhibition during that year at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London. He was awarded a bursary during his college years to travel to Italy, but the experience did nothing to inspire him socially, artistically or to continue any future travelling of note. John Bratby, quite simply, was a British man, whose work was prolific, colourful, as was he and his lifestyle, recording everyday life in an autobiographical way, painting portraits of himself, his family and celebrities who flocked to him, attracted by his unconventional approach to life so prevalent in the fifties and the sixties. He was the founding member of the Kitchen sink Realism style. This term is applied to a group of British artists working in the 1950’s who painted ordinary people in scenes of everyday life. Other exponents were Edward Middleditch, Jack Smith and Derrick Greaves. It was a derogatory term, coined by the art critic David Sylvester who suggested that there was

nothing to suggest “the man about the house is an artist or anything but an ordinary man”. Bratby was far from being an ordinary man although his subject matter was completely ordinary, he was skilful in creating publicity for himself as he exposed his personal life to promote his work. His treatment of his autobiographical work could woo and shock the public but was news-worthy for the journalists. At the height of Bratby’s career, social values were changing and gaining more exposure, his art mirrored this change. This can be seen in the form of heavy impasto paint on his canvases, gaudy colours, distorted shapes, indifferent perspectives and subject matters that were of everyday life of the time. There were no politics or class divisions in his work which were marginally more middle class than his associates working class subjects. This could be cornflake packets strewn across the kitchen table, a pull chain toilet or a still life with chip fryer (acquired by the Tate), and less than modest portraits of his first and second wives. Bratby has often been paired with Walter Sickert or Stanley Spencer, but he did not practice their imagination or exploration in their artistic development, but he simply portrayed what was set before him. He was more influenced by Van Gogh or Soutine. The kitchen sink style is an accurate description of an artist who recorded social realism of the time, who lived life to the full in an age which was repressed in the fifties and started to unravel in the sixties. His lifestyle of bohemian living and heavy drinking led to an early demise. He was quite anti-social through shyness, found it difficult to talk to girls and would spend his term’s grant in the first fortnight on “women of the streets”. He was impoverished whilst at college and would beg or sleep rough in Hyde Park or stow away in the attics of the Royal College. His art matched his wild reputation, painting a still life of dustbins or setting up his easel in the lavatory. His painting was deliberately crude, attention- seeking and it did indeed catch people’s attention. His palette colours were vibrant, and use of paint was thick and flippant. Bratby also wrote several lewd books, “Breakdown” and “Brake-Pedal down”, which he denied being autobiographical. He was likened to Gulley Jimson in Joyce Cary’s novel “the Horse’s Mouth” played by Alec Guinness in the film, who studied Bratby in his studio, whilst taking the part for which he won an award and Bratby won acclaim for his works shown in the film. Bratby married a fellow student, Jean Cooke in 1953 which brought a form of stability to his life, but there were bouts of abuse and violence during the marriage. He was upset by the amount of recognition her paintings received, restricted her painting time to three morning hours and often painted over or slashed her works in fury. They had a daughter and three sons and divorced in 1977. Bratby re-married to an actress Patti Prime who was a stronger personality and enjoyed the less than modest portraits Bratby painted of her as much as he did. He rejected the “lace-curtained decorum” of the time and quite apart from his painting, enjoyed the lifting of censorship so that he could contribute short stories to “men’s magazines”, like those he had penned at school to support himself years before. In 1954 he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, was elected an Associate in 1959 and a full member in 1971. In 1956 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. He received the Guggenheim awards in 1956, 1957 and in 1958 he shared the British Guggenheim Award with Ben Nicholson. During the 1960’s he embarked on an ambitious series of portraits which by the end of the 1980’s numbered over 1500. These included Paul McCartney, Billie Whitelaw & many other notable figures of the time. This afforded him the opportunity to buy a large house in Blackheath and purchase fine cars, indulge in heavy drinking and lovely young ladies. By the 1970’s the kitchen sink era was over-taken by Pop Art, fashions changed but Bratby was still a phenomenally hard worker, was always painting and a Bratby exhibition would open every other month somewhere in Britain. He painted many still life paintings, portraits and crowded kitchen table-tops. He will always be remembered as the enfant terrible of 1950’s British Art, precocious, confrontational, full of swagger “In conclusion I would say that I do not love people. In fact, I may lean to misanthropy, though people fascinate me. And I’ve devoted most of my painting life to them. After all they are what life is about”. On 20th July 1992, walking home from the fish and chip shop in Hastings with second wife Patti Rosenburg, he collapsed. He had enjoyed a life of champagne and cider and one of the last truly unconventional bohemian artists, a shyness behind the vivid boldness of his work, but who shared his life openly either by brush on canvas or pen to paper. John Bratby’s work can be found in many private and public collections including the Tate Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. His work continues to enjoy great popularity.