David Clapham

After adolescence in North Yorkshire, and an early art college training in Harrogate David Clapham was accepted at the Slade School in London in 1959, and enjoyed a unique education under the guidance of Professor William Coldstream and William Townsend. London at that time was a hotbed of new ideas in the arts and the advent of pop culture contrasted strongly with the figurative traditions of the Slade School. This encouraged a re-evaluation of objective painting and sculpture, and what emerged in the work of Michael Andrews, Euan Uglow, Leonard McComb, Anthony Gormley and Paula Rego stems from this new Slade philosophy. While at the Slade, Clapham worked in both painting and sculpture working largely from life, later experimentation with abstract expressionism was strongly influenced by the American Exhibitions held in the early sixties at the Tate. In 1961 he was awarded a travelling scholarship, and stayed in Paris, later moving south to live near the Mediterranean in Colliouer, and later Banyuls, the birthplace of Maillol, and unbeknown to Clapham at the time once a favourite haunt of Matisse and Derain. After returning to England, he lived and worked in London and supported himself with casual work at the BBC and later the th...