Jack Crabtree (artist)

Jack Crabtree
Born	1938 Rochdale, Lancashire, UK
Education	Rochdale College of Art Saint Martin's School of Art Royal Academy Schools
Known for	Painting Drawing
Elected	56 Group Wales
Patron(s)	National Coal Board

Jack Crabtree is a contemporary English figurative painter and teacher. He is known for a series of paintings documenting the South Wales coal industry.

Early life and education

Crabtree was born in 1938 in Rochdale, Lancashire, England. He studied at the following art colleges:

• Rochdale College of Art[1]
• Saint Martin's School of Art, London (1957–59)
• Royal Academy Schools, London (1959–61)

Career

After leaving the Royal Academy, Crabtree lived and worked for a number of years in Rochdale and Salford and then at Newport in South Wales, before taking up an appointment at the University of Ulster in Belfast. He retired to North Wales in 1994.

He was elected a member of the 56 Group Wales (1971–75).[1]

To date Crabtree has had over 70 solo exhibitions. His work can be found in many public collections.[2]

Style

Crabtree's style was described in 1978 by Margaret Richards of Tribune:

"Crabtree is a social realist who works in a natural style that is neither didactic nor over-emphatic. Sometimes his imagery is exhilarating, full of energetic figures, and sometimes sad and sensitive, showing old or weary men struggling to keep going. His vision is affectionate rather than romantic. He sees wild hillsides as a beautiful setting for one of the grimmest jobs facing any man. In his paintings, that beauty and that grimness are parts of an inter-locking reality that has stimulated his creative imagination; while in his graphics the spare outlines and meticulous observation of human nature has been likened to George Grosz's. The comparison is misleading, for Crabtree's sense of humour rarely turns into satire."[3]

Teaching

1961–66: Salford School of Art, and teaching in schools in the Salford and Rochdale area.[1]

1966–74: Lecturer at the College of Art in Newport.[1]

1978- : Senior Lecturer at the Gwent College of Further Education[1]

1983–86: Professor and Head of Fine Art at the University of Ulster, Belfast.[1]

Public collections

Crabree's work is in several public collections, including:

• Arts Council of Ireland[2]
• Arts Council of Northern Ireland[2]
• Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Swansea[4]
• Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool[5]
• National Coal Mining Museum for England, Wakefield[6]
• National Library of Wales[7]
• National Museum Cardiff[8]
• National Trust[9]
• Newport Museum and Art Gallery[10]
• Ulster Museum[11]
• University of South Wales (Glamorgan)^[citation needed]

Awards

1959/60: Kenyon's Foundation Rochdale Education Authority travelling bursary to France.

1974/75: Fellowship at the National Coal Board.

1975/76: Gregynog Arts Fellowship, University of Wales.

1977/78: First International Ruhr Arts Fellowship awarded by the West German Government.[1]

Notable commissions

1971: Artist at Work - murals on the theme of Owain Glyndŵr for the Council Chambers at Plas, Machynlleth.

1974/75: for the National Coal Board, a pictorial record of the changing face of the coalfields of South Wales.

1992/93: Commissioned by the National Trust to record Patterson's Spade Mill, Northern Ireland, pre-restoration.

References

1. Moore, David (2012). A Taste of the Avant-Garde - 56 Group Wales 56 Years. Brecon, Wales: Crooked Window. p. 33. ISBN 978 0 9563602 1 2.
2. "Jack Crabtree". Art in Wales. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
3. Richards, Margaret (1978), Jack Crabtree Face to Face, London: SVR Essen & Welsh Arts Council Cardiff, p. 12
4. "Save This Pit". Art UK. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
5. "portrait-of-the-artist". Art UK.
6. "Four Colliers in the Showers". Art UK. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
7. "Jack Crabtree". National Library of Wales. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
8. "Art Collections Online - Crabtree, Jack". National Museum Wales. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
9. "A View through the Window of Patterson's Spade Mill". National Trust. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
10. "In The Showers". Art UK. Retrieved 6 March 2014.
11. "Portrait of Brian Friel". National Museums Northern Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2014.

External links

• 40 artworks by or after Jack Crabtree at the Art UK site
• "Jack Crabtree". Art in Wales. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
• "Portrait of Francis Stuart (1990)" at Arts Council of Northern Ireland
• "In the Showers" at Gathering the Jewels.org
• "Artist Jack Crabtree reunited with south Wales coal paintings" (Video). BBC. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2014.