Tony Bevan

Tony Bevan was born in Bradford, in the North of England, in 1951 and studied at Goldsmith’s and the Slade School of Fine Art. Bevan is an established figurative painter and has been seen by some to represent the next generation taking forward the tradition of figurative painters often referred as the ‘School of London’. He has exhibited widely both in the UK and internationally and his works are part of public and private collections around the world.

Throughout his career, his work has been characterised by two different motifs. Bevan has firstly focused on the human body, especially the human head, often picturing his own head in the work. These works explore the emotions and inner psychology of the human psyche, expressed in a visually simplified and geometric way. His paintings have a raw, almost physical quality that gives them their powerful presence. This is emphasised also by the techniques used by Bevan – strong brushstrokes and charcoal marks are combined with pure pigment surfaces. The ‘self-portraits’ have evolved during his career – the earlier works in the 1980’s still pictured whole human bodies and figures, but after the mid 90’s Bevan abandoned the bodies, leaving the heads decapitated and reducing them to patterns of lines and structural forms. Bevan himself sees that the heads encapsulate the whole body, the whole of the self.

Tony Bevan has also worked with the motif of architectural constructs, mainly through his Rafters and Corridor paintings. These works have often been inspired by the dilapidated buildings close to his studio in South London or places he has seen in photographs or from memory. Rather than picturing existing places the architectural works represent more of a pictorial space for the imagination to enter into. Bevan uses his strong flow lines to picture fragile interiors characterised by roof beams and wall structures that give the spaces a skeletal feeling, as the walls seem to have lost their solidity and the space may collapse at any moment. Yet, these works have an airy feeling to them, leaving the spaces to be exposed to the different elements and the sky. More recently, Bevan has also used furniture as a motif for his abstract architectural paintings.

Bevan’s most significant solo exhibitions include those held at the National Portrait Gallery London in 1985, Whitechapel Gallery in London 1993 and more recently, Abbot Hall in Kendal, Cumbria in 2003.

IVAM will show a series of his works, which cover the different stages through his career. This exhibition will be Bevan’s second show in a Spanish public institution, after his exhibition at Santiago de Compostela.

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Tony Bevan