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JOHN LESSORE

Private View Saturday 26th June 2004 noon - 5.00pm
Wine served - All Works for Sale
Exibition Finishes Saturday 17th July 2004

Where enquiries of prices are made on the gallery, the work is subject to availability and the price to change.


"Discussion Mania" - 2000/02 Oil on Canvas 76 x 114 cms

 

John Lessore was born in London in 1939. He comes from a distinguished family of artists, many of whom were painters and etchers who also decorated porcelain. His father was a sculptor. He studied at the Slade but did not adopt the then current post-Euston Road style, preferring to develop the practice of painting from quick drawings or studies rather than direct from the motif.

He is a painter of moments, those split seconds, of which most of us are not aware, when elements are suddenly "right" together. As if by magic, he grasps and metamorphoses them into images. And then we feel, "That's exactly what it was like!" His preferred subject matter is people, in rooms, out of doors, eating, sleeping or going about the thousand chores that make up life with a small "L".

He cares passionately about drawing, which he occasionally teaches at the Prince's Drawing studio in Shoreditch. His palette tends towards subtle and muted, though not necessarily sombre colours. His love of delicate tone, however, comes partly from observation and partly from a lifelong study of the great Dutch, French and Italian masters in the National Gallery, of which he became the artist trustee a year ago.

He lives and works in London, East Anglia and France and is, at the moment, working on a portrait group of six British paralympic athletes.

 

JOHN LESSORE - BIOGRAPHY

 
1939
Born in London
1957-61
Studied at the Slade School of Fine Art
1961
Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship to Italy
1965-99
Taught at the Royal Academy Schools 1978-86 Taught at the Norwich School of Art
1982

Selected Serpentine Summer Show

1987

Painter in residence at Bryam Shaw School of Art

1991
Korn Ferry International Award, Nomination and joint first prizewinner
1994
The Jerwood Prize, Nomination
Lives and works in London, East Anglia and France
2001

Teaching at The Prince's Foundation (now The Prince's Drawing Studio)

2003
Appointed Trustee at the National Gallery, London
 
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
 
1965
Beaux Arts Gallery, London
1969
Ashgate Gallery, Farnham
1971
New Art Centre, London
1981
Theo Waddington, London
1983

Stoppenbach & Delestre, London

1985

Stoppenbach & De1estre, London

1986
The Sternberg Centre for Judaism, London
1990

Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London

1994
Theo Waddington & Robert Stoppenbach, London
1995
Solomon Gallery, Dublin
1997

Theo Waddington Fine Art, London
Miriam Shiell Fine Art, Toronto

1999

Wolsey Art Gallery, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
National Portrait Gallery, London

2000

GiIlian Jason/English Heritage, Rangers House, Blackheath

2004
Chappel Galleries, Essex
2001
Chappel Galleries (solo exhibition).
 
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
 
1967
English Painting 1951-67, Norwich Castle Museum
1968
Helen Lessore and the Beaux Arts Gallery, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1976
The Human Clay (Arts Council of Great Britain) Hayward Gallery, London, and tour
1977
Greater London Picture Show, London
1978

Spirit of London Exhibition, London (Prizewinner)

1980

Pictures for an Exhibition, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

1981
Drawings and Watercolours by 13 British Artists, Marlborough Fine Art, London
1982

The John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 13, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, (Prizewinner)

1983-84
Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery, London 1983-84 Interiors, Anne Berthoud Gallery, London
1984
The Hard-Won Image, Tate Gallery, London
1984-85

The Proper Study: Contemporary Figurative Paintings from Britain, British Council tour, New Delhi and Bombay

1985

A Singular Vision, Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter, and tour
In their Circumstances, Lincoln Art Gallery, and tour

1985-86

Rocks and Flesh, Norwich School of Art Gallery, Norwich, and tour

1986

Seven British Artists: Figure and Landscape, Edward Totah Gallery, London
Robin Campbell Memorial Exhibition, Smiths Galleries, London American/European Painting and Sculpture, L.A. Louver, Venice, California

1987
Image in Line, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, New York Flowers, Anne Berthoud Gallery, London
1987-88
British Figurative Painting: A Matter of Paint, Pame1a Auchinc10ss Gallery, Santa Barbara, California and tour
1987-89
Experience of Landscape, (Arts Council of Great Britain) Derby Art Gallery, and tour
1988
A Personal Choice, selected by Jeffery Camp, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London
The British Picture, L.A. Louver, Venice, California
1988-90
Past and Present (Arts Council of Great Britain) Manchester City Art Gallery and tour
1989

School of London: Works on Paper, Odette Gilbert Gallery, London Salute to Turner, The National Trust's Foundation for Art, Thos. Agnew & Sons, London

1990

The Pursuuit of the Real: British Figurative Painting from Sickert to Bacon, Manchester City Art Gallery, Barbican Art Gallery, London, and Glasgow City Art Gallery.
The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London

1991
Critic's Choice, Giles Auty, Beaux Arts, Bath
Works on Paper, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London
Cabinet paintings, GiIlian Jason Gallery, London, and tour
1993

Contemporary British Portraits, Real & Imagined, GiIlian Jason Gallery
Shared Exhibition with Michael Fell, Comteroux, Perpignan
Continuing the Tradition, Chappel Galleries, Essex

1993-94
Drawing on these Shores, Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, and tour
1994
The Wilkie Gift, Tate Gallery, London
1995

Theo Waddington Fine Art, London

1996

Theo Waddington Fine Art, London

1997

British Figurative Art, Flowers East, London

1999
Landscape and The Imaginative, The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture, London
2003
Different Landscapes, Artspace Gallery, London
 
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Andersen Consulting, London; Arthur Andersen, London; Arts Council of Great Britain, London; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Ben Uri Art Society, London; British Council, London; Contemporary Art Society; Eastern Arts Association; Government Art Collection; Guildhall Art Gallery, London; Leicestershire Education Committee; Lethbridge University, Alberta, Canada; Manchester City Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery; Newport Art Gallery, Wales; Norwich Castle Museum; Rationalist Press Association, London; Royal Academy of Arts London; Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter; Sternberg Centre for Judaism, London; Swindon Museum & Art Gallery; Tate Gallery, London; Westminster Hospital, London.


"My Mother on the Terrace" - 1987 Oil on Slate 30.5 x 61 cms

 
 
 
 
 
 
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