Bevan was born in Bradford and studied in London at both Goldsmith’s and at the Royal College of Art. An artist who is known for his striking paintings of heads and figures, usually men or young boys (and often himself), his large drawing here is a study for a much larger work, The Meeting, shown in the Whitechapel in 1993. During the 1980s, when Bevan first came to prominence, he tended to feature single figures painted in vivid pigment with charcoal. The drawing here derives from a newspaper photograph the artist found in Chile, showing a group of men standing in serried ranks and singing (see other works from the series in the Tate Collection www.tate.org.uk/collection. Bevan grinds his own pigments, considering their weights and properties carefully. In his drawings he uses charcoal made from either willow, poplar or vine, each one possessing a unique softness and ‘colour’.

Thresholds, British Council 2010