John Hinchcliffe

Born in Chichester on January 21 1949, John Graham Hinchcliffe was the son of a barrister and journalist, and spent his childhood at Arundel, Sussex. He was educated at the West Sussex College of Art and Design, progressing to undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Camberwell and the Royal College of Art.
He made his mark in the field of contemporary crafts before he was 30. On a visit to the Konstfachskolan, the school of art and design in Stockholm, he found himself drawn to the Scandinavian tradition of rag rugs; and having set up his studio at South Stoke, West Sussex, in 1973, with his first wife, Frances Newland, he began to make exuberant wall hangings and rugs.
This was arduous and painstaking work, but the results were expressive, confident and forceful. They were works singing with colour, and they attracted immediate attention. The Crafts Advisory Committee commissioned kneelers for Romsey Abbey.
Hinchcliffe was featured in a BBC Second House documentary, and in 1977 embarked on a lecture tour of America funded by the American Craft Council and the National Endowment of the Arts. In the same year he won the John Player Telegraph Sunday Magazine British Craft Award for Textiles.
But Hinchcliffe was not content to r...

Royal College of Art MA
Camberwell School of Art BA
West Sussex College of Art & Design Foundation