Tom Phillips was born in South London and studied at St Catherine’s College, Oxford and later at Camberwell College of Arts, where the painter Frank Auerbach was then teaching. Phillips was elected a Royal Academician in 1989. His observations, reading and reflection are as wide as the imagery he derives from them. He is meticulous in his art and his research, analysing and delving into a subject in the most rigorous way, yet he has an abiding concern for chance procedures which enrich and vitalise his work. He uses music and literature to create new forms visually, as well as composing music and film making (he collaborated with Peter Greenaway in a production of Dante’s Inferno). He uses collage techniques, in addition to painting, drawing and printmaking. As an avid collector he has a particular interest in African art. As a portrait painter Phillips requires lengthy sittings; the painting of the portrait of Charles Saumarez-Smith was documented on film by British television Channel 4 in 2004.

www.tomphillips.co.uk
www.royalacademy.org.uk

Glossary

  • Collage

    The two-dimensional form of assemblage made by affixing paper, card, photographs, fabric and other objects to a flat surface. It is often combined with painting and drawing techniques. This technique was first introduced by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1912 during their phase of synthetic cubism.

  • Drawing

    The depiction of shapes and forms on a flat surface chiefly by means of lines although colour and shading may also be included. Materials most commonly used are pencil, ink, crayon, charcoal, chalk and pastel, although other materials, including paint, can be used in combination.

  • Film

    A transparent, flexible plastic material, usually of cellulose acetate or polyester, on which light-sensitive emulsion is coated, or on which an image can be formed by various transfer processes.

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

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  • Art Project

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