Anthony Green RA Hon RBA Hon ROI LG NEAC (1939 - 2023)
Anthony Green was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, on 30 September 1939, the son of Frederick Sandall Green and his French wife, Marie Madeleine Dupont.
He was educated at Highgate School, where his art teacher, Kyffin Williams, proved to be a positive influence. He then studied at the Slade School of Art, London, from 1956 to 1960. While there, he exhibited in the Young Contemporaries exhibitions, and met both Ben Levene, who became a lifelong friend and fellow Royal Academician, and Mary Cozens-Walker, who became his fiancée and muse. A bursary from the French Government enabled him to spend the year 1960-61 in Paris.
On his return to London, in 1961, he married Mary, and in the following year established himself with his first solo show, held at his then dealer, the Rowan Gallery. At the same time, he returned to the Slade as a teacher (1962-63, 1964-66), and became a member of the London Group (1964). His expressionistic early work displayed the influence of Chaïm Soutine and Jean Dubuffet.
On receipt of a Harkness Fellowship in 1967, Green spent two years in the United States, living in Leonia, New Jersey, and Altadena, California. During this time, he began to work from memory, a process that resulted in complex figurative works on a large scale. These soon became a regular feature of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, at which Green first showed in 1966. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1971, and a full Academician in 1977, the year in which he won the Exhibit of the Year Award at the Summer Exhibition. Then, in 1978, his work became the subject of a touring show that began at Rochdale Art Gallery. Many domestic and international solo exhibitions followed, including a tour of Japan in 1987, and a tour of British cathedrals in 2000.
Elected a member of the New English Art Club in 2002, Anthony Green also became an honorary member of both the RBA and ROI. Other honours include his election as a Fellow of University College (1991) and the award of an honorary doctorate by the University of Buckingham (2011).
Words and image reproduced by kind permission of Chris Beetles Gallery, and the estate of Anthony Green.
