Basil Beattie (b.1935)

Catalogue Note

Basil Beattie was born in 1935 in West Harlepool, County Durham. He studied at the West Hartlepool School of Art from 1950 until 1955. He was then accepted into the Royal Academy Schools in 1957 where he continued his education until 1961. He then began a long teaching career: during the 1980s and 1990s, Beattie taught at Goldsmiths College, London. He retired from the role in 1998, spending a further year as assessor at the Chelsea School of Art.

His work revolves around abstraction, and is known for its emotive and gestural forms. An initial interest in the paintings of Walter Richard Sickert gave way to influences from the late work of Picasso and paintings by the New York artists associated with Abstract Expressionism. Beattie's mature work can be situated within the context of the abstraction practised by other English painters such as John Hoyland, Albert Irvin and Gillian Ayres, all of whose sensual and physical use of paint owes some allegiance to the recent American tradition. 

He was shortlisted for the prestigious Jerwood Painting Prize in both 1998 and 2001.  Tate Britain held an important exhibition of his 1990s paintings in 2007 and his works are part of the their permanent collection.

Beattie lived in the 1970s with Mavis Cheek, later a successful novelist, and has a daughter by her.