Mark Lancaster (artist)
Encyclopedia
Early years
Educated at Holme Valley Grammar School, 1949–52, and Bootham SchoolBootham School
Bootham School is an independent Quaker boarding school in the city of York in North Yorkshire, England. It was founded by the Religious Society of Friends in 1823. It is close to York Minster. The current headmaster is Jonathan Taylor. The school's motto Membra Sumus Corporis Magni means "We...
, York, from 1952 to 55, after which he worked in a family textile business and studied textile technology for six years, painting in his own time, before going to King's College, Newcastle in 1961 to study Fine Art.
From 1961 to 1965 Mark Lancaster studied under Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (artist)
Richard William Hamilton, CH was a British painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the...
at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963. Newcastle University is...
, where he also taught from 1965–66, and then at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, Wiltshire, 1966–68, while living in London. He first visited New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1964, where he worked briefly as an assistant to Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, appeared in several Warhol movies, and met Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
, Ray Johnson
Ray Johnson
Raymond Edward Johnson , known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art...
, Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly
Ellsworth Kelly is an American painter and sculptor associated with Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and the Minimalist school. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing the simplicity of form found similar to the work of John McLaughlin. Kelly often employs bright colors to...
, Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
, Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
, James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist
James Rosenquist is an American artist and one of the protagonists in the pop-art movement.-Background and education:...
, Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York and Zihuatanejo, Mexico.-Biography:...
, Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara
Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry.-Life:...
, Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell
Robert Motherwell American painter, printmaker and editor. He was one of the youngest of the New York School , which also included Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Philip Guston....
, Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler is an American abstract expressionist painter. She is a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work in six decades she has spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work...
, Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
and many others. In New York he photographed extensively, and started a series of paintings related to the imagery of the Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's is a chain of hotels and restaurants, located primarily throughout the United States and Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Howard Johnson's was the largest restaurant chain in the United States, with over 1,000 restaurants...
restaurants, then ubiquitous, bringing back to England information and ideas, and giving a "New York" lecture and slide show with music that influenced artist friends at Newcastle, such as Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
, Stephen Buckley
Stephen Buckley
Stephen Buckley is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Carlton and North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League .- Notes :...
, Nicholas deVille, Tim Head
Tim Head
Tim Head is a British artist.Born in London, He studied at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1965 to 1969, where his teachers included Richard Hamilton and Ian Stephenson. His contemporary students included Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry...
and Keith Milow
Keith Milow
Keith Milow is a British artist, born in London , lived in New York , now lives in Amsterdam. He is an abstract sculptor, as well as a painter and printmaker. His work can be characterized as architectural, monumental, and minimal....
.
His first one-person exhibition was at the Rowan Gallery, London, in November 1965, where he had many subsequent shows, as well as at the Betty Parsons
Betty Parsons
Betty Parsons, born Betty Bierne Pierson, was an American artist and art dealer known for her early promotion of Abstract Expressionism. She was known as "the den mother of Abstract Expressionism"...
Gallery, New York, in 1972 and 1974. In 1974 his "Paintings Cambridge/New York" was organized by Richard Francis
Richard Francis
Richard Francis was a famous English cricketer who played for the Hambledon Club.Francis is known to have been a Surrey man by birth and he had played for Surrey teams before moving to Hampshire...
, at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. His work was included in many international exhibitions organized by The British Council, including the Paris Biennale and "British Painting and Sculpture 1940 to 1970" at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1970. He made a series of prints with Kelpra Studios Tate
Tate
-Places:*Tate, Georgia, a town in the United States*Tate County, Mississippi, a county in the United States*Táté, the Hungarian name for Totoi village, Sântimbru Commune, Alba County, Romania*Tate, Filipino word for States...
) and Editions Alecto in London, and in New York at Simca Studios which were exhibited at Multiples gallery, New York.
Invited to be the first Artist in Residence at King's College
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
from 1968 to 1970, he became friends with E.M. Forster, Dadie Rylands
Dadie Rylands
George Humphrey Wolferstan Rylands CH CBE , known as Dadie Rylands, was a British literary scholar and theatre director. Educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, he was a Fellow of King's from 1927 until his death.As well as being one of the world's leading Shakespeare scholars, he...
and other Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
survivors including Duncan Grant
Duncan Grant
Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, potterty and theatre sets and costumes...
, whose decorations in King's for Maynard Keynes he had restored, in rooms then occupied by Bernard Williams
Bernard Williams
Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams was an English moral philosopher, described by The Times as the most brilliant and most important British moral philosopher of his time. His publications include Problems of the Self , Moral Luck , Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy , and Truth and Truthfulness...
. His paintings refer to the ambiance of Cambridge, the architecture of King's, and bear the mark of American Modernist art as well as references to "pop" imagery, and his own photography. Examples include : "Cambridge Green"http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_e3BsDt7_O88/SoqqO5b5GaI/AAAAAAAAlm8/nVjDVCOffOc/s1600-h/image03.jpg (Tate Britain
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...
) and "Cambridge Red and Green" Pallant House Gallery
Pallant House Gallery
Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the world....
Colin St John Wilson
Colin St John Wilson
Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, FRIBA, RA, was a British architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned to be built in Bloomsbury and now completed near Kings Cross.-Early and private life:Wilson was...
Gift, and "James Gibbs", named for the architect of the Gibbs building where he lived
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=8280&searchid=11777
A notable painting referencing the assassination of President John F Kennedy, called "Zapruder" (1967) is in the collection of the British Council:http://collection.britishcouncil.org/exhibition/past/12/14192/object/46011/
In 1985 he temporarily returned to England, to Sandgate, Kent. In 1987, following the sudden death of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
on February 22, he made in one year close to 200 small paintings, collectively titled "Post-Warhol Souvenirs", which all featured references to Warhol's "Marilyn" image. They were exhibited at the Mayor Rowan Gallery in London in 1988, opening on February 22, 1988, the first anniversary of Warhol's death. Marco Livingstone wrote an article on them for the magazine "Art & Design", and they were featured in his book "Pop Art, A Continuing History" Thames and Hudson http://www.bookfinder.com/dir/i/Pop_Art-A_Continuing_History/0500282404/ Several of these paintings are in the collection of the Pallant House Gallery
Pallant House Gallery
Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery in Chichester, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the world....
, Chichester, and the Berardo Foundation, Portugal. Some can be seen here: http://www.warholstars.org/andywarhol/interview/mark/0905.jpg
His Newcastle days and first New York visit are described in some detail by Michael Bracewell
Michael Bracewell
Michael Bracewell is a British writer and novelist. He was born in London, and educated at the University of Nottingham.-Bibliography:*Fiction**Missing Margate **The Crypto-Amnesia Club...
in his book Re-make/Re-Model
Re-Make/Re-Model
"Re-Make/Re-Model" is a song written by Bryan Ferry that appears as the opening track on Roxy Music's eponymous debut album.The recording starts with a musique concrète introduction, a short collage of cocktail party noise, before launching into a stereotypical 1950s song structure...
, 2007, about the founding of the group Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
Back in the United States, he lived in Miami, Florida and Jamestown, Rhode Island, before returning to Florida.
Set designer
Frequently visiting New York in the years following 1964, Mark Lancaster moved to the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
permanently in 1973. He became an assistant and Private Secretary to Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns
Jasper Johns, Jr. is an American contemporary artist who works primarily in painting and printmaking.-Life:Born in Augusta, Georgia, Jasper Johns spent his early life in Allendale, South Carolina with his paternal grandparents after his parents' marriage failed...
from 1974 to 1985.
In 1975 he started working as Resident Designer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
. Over the next 10 years he designed sets, costumes and lighting for the following dance works: "Sounddance" (1975), "Rebus" (1975), "Torse" (1976), "Squaregame" (1976), "Fractions" (both video and stage versions, 1977), "Tango" (1978), "Roadrunners" (1979), "Duets" (1980) "Tens with Shoes" (1981), "Gallopade" (1981), "Trails" (1982), "Quartet" (1982) "Roaratorio" (1983) "Inlets 2" (1983) "Fielding Sixes" (1983), "Pictures" (1984) and "Doubles" (1984). He also designed "Duets" for the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...
(1982), "Fielding Sixes" Ballet Rambert (1983) and Ballet Royal de Wallonie (1983).
In 1984 he retired as Artistic Advisor to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham
Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...
, but returned in 1988 to design "Five Stone Wind",in Berlin, Avignon and New York, for which he received a 1989 Bessie Award New York Dance and Performance Awards, and in 1991 to design "Neighbors", in 1992 "Touchbase" for Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...
and the Cunningham Company, in 1993 "CRWDSPCR", and in 1994 new versions of "Sounddance" and "Rune".
Mark Lancaster currently resides in Miami Beach.
He became an American Citizen in 1999.