Graham Crowley (left) and Bobby Baker in Mystery on the Rebound, a play written by Crowley about an amateur dramatic society that performs a mystery thriller, 1971.
The artist with his sons, Robin and Pearce, in the studio at Upland Road, London, 1986
The artist on the TT course, Isle of Man, 2007
1950 – Born in Romford, Essex.
1961-8 – Attends Rayleigh Sweyne Technical and Grammar School after parents turn down scholarship to King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford. Passes A-levels in art, economics and mathematics. Writes and performs in school stage reviews. Hobbies include drawing and model-making, animated cartoons and comic strips.
1968-72 – Attends St. Martin’s School of Art, London, progressing from foundation to undergraduate diploma course in painting in 1969. Tutors include Gillian Ayres and Harry Mundy; meets Raymond Durgnat and Michael Williams. Fellow students include Richard Deacon, Craigie Horsfield, Andrej Klimowski, Richard Miller and David Wiseman. Graduates in 1972. Vice-president of the school’s student’s union and active in the London Art Schools Alliance. Writes satirical plays and performs them with Bobby Baker (Mystery on the Rebound) and Peter Eddleston, Stephen Farthing, Wiseman and other contemporaries (The Revenge of Doctor X).
1969 – Makes first visit to Ireland
.
1972-5 – Studies painting at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London; awarded MA in 1975. Meets fellow student Michael Major and tutors include Peter de Francia, John Golding and Alan Miller. Involved with the ‘Fine Art Society’ set up by fellow students; speakers invited to meetings include Richard Wollheim. Visits Italy and France, including Musée Léger at Biot.
1973 – First one-man exhibition, at the Hoya Gallery, London.
1976 – Selected for John Moores Liverpool Exhibition; selected again in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1993, 2004 and 2006. Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB) purchases Tug (1975) from the 1976 show. Named joint second prize-winner in 1987 for The Poetics of Space (1986) and prize-winner in 2006 for Red Reflection (2005). Receives ACGB minor award in 1976, with major award in 1977.
1978 – Marries Sally Townsend, a contemporary at RCA studying environmental design. First son, Robin, born in 1982, and second, Pearce, in 1985.
1978-85 – Visiting lecturer in painting, RCA. Also visiting lectureships at Winchester School of Art (1978-82) and at Goldsmith’s College, University of London (1984-6). Occupies studio in Baldwin’s Gardens, off Gray’s Inn Road, London, until early 1980s.
1980 – Returns to painting after self-imposed break of about a year.
1981 – (March) Visits Italy. (October) Inauguration of Ticket on the Move, his first major public art commission, at the Pitt and Scott building, London. Other public commissions follow, including The Birds at the Brompton Hospital, London (1982) and Four Seasons at Chandler’s Ford public library, Hampshire (1983).
1982-3 – Artist-in-residence to Oxford University and visiting fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Oneman exhibition, Home Comforts, opens in May 1983 at Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, to complete the residency.
1983 – Prizewinner, Tolly Cobbold-Eastern Arts, Fourth National Exhibition, with 3B (1982).
1982-8 – Member of the Fine Art Faculty, British School at Rome.
1983-6 Lives and works in south-east London.
1984 – First one-man show with Edward Totah Gallery, London. Other shows with this art dealer follow in 1987, 1989 and 1991, and in 1986 at Totah-Stelling Gallery, New York. Delivers lecture ‘The Importance of Being Subversive’ in programme organised by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
1985-9 – Member of the advisory board, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London.
1986 – Included in Comic Iconoclasm at the ICA.
1986-9 – Senior Fellow in painting, South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, Cardiff.
1987-8 – Member of the National Advisory Board fine art working committee of the Dept of Education and Science.
1989 – Family moves to cottage in Staunton in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.
1990 – Selected for the Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London. Shows again in 1991 and 1992.
1991 – Selected for Riverscape, the international drawing residency for the River Trees, working in Hartlepool, Langbaurgh, Middlesbrough and Stockton during the 18-month project.
1992 – Return to London.
1993-4 – One year appointment as tutor in painting, Kingston University.
1994 – Receives first prize in The First John Jones Open, selected by Prunella Clough and Andrew Lambirth, for Flower Arranging (1) (1988/92). Buys house in Skibbereen, West Cork, Ireland, where spends vacations. On retirement from teaching in 2006 moves permanently to Skibbereen.
1994-5 – Artist-in-residence at Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. Commissioned by Stephen Stuart-Smith to illustrate The Mortmere Stories by Christopher Isherwood and Edward Upward for Enitharmon Press.
1995 – Commissioned by Richard Appignanesi to illustrate Marquis de Sade for Beginners, written by Stuart Hood in the series by Icon Books of graphic guides using comic strip format. Prizewinner, 27e Festival international de la peinture, Canes-sur-Mer, France.
1995-6 – Tutor, Drawing Studio, RCA.
1996-8 – Head of Fine Art, City and Guilds of London Art School, London.
1998-2006 – Professor of Painting, RCA, succeeding Paul Huxley.
2007 – Chairs panel of judges for the Jerwood Contemporary Painters exhibition, London.
2008 – Initiates debate on fine art in British higher education which is pursued by the art periodical, Art Monthly. Member of the jury for the twenty-fifth John Moores Liverpool Exhibition.
2006-2010 – Lives and works in West Cork.
2010-2014 – Lives and works in London.
2014-present – Living and working in Suffolk.