Andre Bicat (1909-1996)

Catalogue Note

Born in Essex in 1909 to French and Anglo-Irish parents, André Bicât was an artist working in a variety of media, including painting and printmaking.

In the 1930s Bicat worked extensively as a set designer for the theatre including a New York production of Murder in the Cathedral by T S Elliot and productions for Windsor Repertory Theatre and the Mercury Theatre.  From 1966 to 1974 Andre Bicat worked as a tutor in the printmaking departments at the Royal College of Art and the City and Guilds Art School in London, where he was known as an inspiring and committed teacher.  Bicat's attention to the details of his craft and the intensity with which he passed on these skills helped many younger artists to find their feet.

From 1947-1985 Bicat lived in a converted barn at Crays Pond, near Reading.  He later lived in London.

Bicat exhibited widely in the UK and Europe, with one-man exhibitions in London, Paris, Dublin, Reading, Colchester and Swansea.  He showed regularly at the Royal Academy and at the Redfern Gallery in London.  His work is in collections worldwide, including the British Museum, the National Gallery of Wales, Oxford University, Brooklyn Museum, Dallas Museum of Fine Art and Cleveland Museum, Ohio.  Nine of his prints are in the Tate Gallery and thirty-one prints are held by the Government Art Collection.