BIOGRAPHY

Over a sixty-year career, Basil Beattie has remained part of a milieu of British artists whose works continue the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. Beattie was a pioneer of a new approach to painting in post-war Britain, having been significantly influenced by The New American Painting show at the Tate in 1959, in particular the works of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. These formative elements would persuade and mould the parameters of Beattie’s work in the 1960s and early ’70s, but it was not long before he abandoned a purely formal approach and developed his own type of abstract painting, which has served to distinguish himself from many other artists working at the time. Beattie has extended the legacy of Abstract Expressionism in post-war Britain, orchestrating formal visual dynamics in an expansive scale. He has subsequently gained the epithet of a ‘painter’s painter’ and has over a sixty-year career influenced generations, most notably the Young British Artists (YBAs) through teaching at Goldsmiths College during the 1980s and 1990s.

Beattie’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including solo shows at Tate Britain (London, UK); Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK); Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (UK); Jerwood Gallery (Hastings, UK); IKON Gallery (Birmingham, UK); Castlefield Gallery (Manchester, UK); Sadler’s Wells Theatre (London, UK); and Goldsmiths Gallery (London, UK). His works have been included in critical group exhibitions at Barbican Centre (London, UK); Camden Arts Centre (London, UK) as well as the Jerwood Painting Prize 1998 and 2001 at Jerwood Gallery, (London, UK) and Gallery of Modern Art (Glasgow, UK); and John Moores Painting Prize exhibition in 2015, ’16 and ’17 at Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK). Beattie’s work can be found in numerous public and private collections including: Arts Council England; Tate collections; Contemporary Art Society; Deutsche Bank; Government Art Collection; NatWest Group Art; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Royal Academy Collection; and the Jerwood Collection (all in UK).

Irresistible Climb (Ladder Series), 2020