ArtCo Contemporary Fine Arts

“ No artist of his generation has contemplated the comedy of life with greater intelligence, wit or courage than Patrick Caulfield “

Mel Gooding, art historian, November 1998

Patrick Caulfield, painter and printmaker, was born 29th January 1936 in London, England. He was among the generation of artists, including David Hockney, Peter Blake and Allen Jones, who seemed to epitomise British Pop Art, though his work often has an introspective or melancholic mood quite unlike Pop Art's more upbeat style. Since the 1960s he has produced pictures of interiors and still lifes that suggest the banality of everyday existence.

Patrick Caulfield studied at Chelsea School of Art, London from 1956 to 1960 and at the Royal College of Art, London from 1960 to 1963. He returned to Chelsea School of Art to teach from 1963 to 1971.

Caulfield’s first solo exhibition was held in 1965 at the Robert Fraser Gallery, London. His international reputation was quickly established and a string of one-man shows of his work were held in the UK and in many countries throughout the world. His first print retrospectives were held at Waddington Galleries, London in 1973 and at Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, California, touring to Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona in 1977. Subsequent retrospectives were held at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool ('Paintings 1963-81'), touring to the Tate Gallery, London in 1981; Waddington Galleries, London (1981); Nishimura Gallery, Tokyo (1982); Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (1983); Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Rio de Janeiro (British Council print retrospective) with a subsequent tour to 12 venues in South America (1985-87) and 3 venues in Portugal (1989-90); and Cleveland Gallery, Middlesborough (1988).

More recently, retrospectives have been held at the Serpentine Gallery, London (1992-93), the Alan Cristea Gallery, London (1999) and at the Hayward Gallery, London (British Council retrospective), touring to Musée National d’Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Caulfield’s work has also been included in numerous key group exhibitions throughout the world since 1961.

Patrick Caulfield was elected R.A. in 1993 and was joint-winner of the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1995. In 1996 he was awarded the CBE, and received an Honorary Fellowship of the London Institute. Tate Gallery, Liverpool, are currently holding an exhibition of paintings and prints to celebrate his work Patrick Caulfield died in 2005.

Some Poems of Jules Laforgue

Some Poems of Jules Laforgue with images by Patrick Caulfield was published by Petersburg Press in 1973.

Patrick Caulfield produced twenty two screenprints to compliment a series of poems by the late nineteenth century poet, Jules Laforgue. This book of poems and screenprints ranks as one of the most successful and felicitous marriages of text and image in the twentieth century. Laforgue's witty, ironical and melancholy insights into the significance of mundane, everyday objects, as he moves easily back and forth between reality and reverie, find an almost uncanny parallel in Caulfield's attitude to life and art a century later. Patrick regarded printmaking as an essentially simple and direct medium and the concision which he achieved in his illustrations to Laforgue capture the tone of the verse perfectly. This body of work represents the quintessential example of his approach to printmaking.

Each screenprint is referenced in the Catalogue Raisonne of Patrick Caulfield prints and comes with a copy of the signed justification page.

Each Edition size is 400. Please enquire if you are interested in purchasing a screenprint that is sold as there are additional copies of some pieces.

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