- John Bratby
John Randall Bratby (
July 19 ,1928 –July 20 ,1992 ) was an English painter who founded the "kitchen sink" style of art that was influential in the late 1950s.Born in Wimbledon, Bratby studied at Kingston College from 1948 to 1950, then at the
Royal College of Art from 1951 to 1954. Three years after his graduation he became a tutor at the college. Bratby became famous for his adaptation of the impressionist realism ofWalter Sickert and theCamden Town Group towards a more aggressively expressionist style influenced by van Gogh and the Abstract Expressionists.Kitchen sink
Bratby's expressionistic style became known as "
kitchen sink realism " after a painting of Bratby's which depicted a kitchen sink.David Sylvester wrote an article in 1954 about trends in recent British art, calling his article "The Kitchen Sink" in reference to Bratby's picture. Sylvester argued that there was a new interest among young painters in domestic scenes, with stress on the banality of life. Bratby painted several kitchen subjects, often turning practical utensils such as sieves and spoons into semi-abstract shapes. He also painted bathrooms, and made three paintings of toilets. Other artists associated with the "kitchen sink" style include Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch and Jack Smith. The term later became applied to a form of quarrelsome domestic drama epitomised byJohn Osborne 's plays "Look Back in Anger " and "Who is John Bratby?". In America, the term was associated withPaddy Chayefsky and other dramatists who created plays for live television during the 1950s. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=mnWfAKizTTAC&pg=PA279&lpg=PA279&dq=chayefsky+%22kitchen+sink%22&source=web&ots=o7ahC6-6m8&sig=DqV_NAEY_kd8DUP86NcQ6u59VpM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result Rutherford, Paul. "When Television Was Young". University of Toronto Press, 1990.] ]"The Horse's Mouth"
In 1958 Bratby created works for the fictional artist Gulley Jimson in the
Alec Guinness film "The Horse's Mouth".Bratby's own work fell out of favour with the emergence of
Pop art , but his paintings have increased in value and support over recent years.Paul McCartney has been a collector and supporter.A portion of Bratby's painting "Four Lambrettas and Three Portraits of Janet Churchman" (1958) is featured on the cover of
Mark Knopfler 's 2007 album "Kill To Get Crimson ".Bratby was married to the painter Jean Cooke. He died in
Hastings ,Sussex .References
External links
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=804&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=bio The Tate Gallery's biography of Bratby]
* [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=804&page=1 Tate Gallery]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/bratby_john.html John Bratby]
* [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/20c/bratby-portraits.asp Three Self Portraits with a White Wall]
* [http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/collections/20c/bratby-pram.asp Baby in pram in garden]
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