Dennis Creffield in-conversation with Kate Aspinall

About

Creffield attended Bomberg’s classes from 1947-1951, and Bomberg’s approach had a significant, and lasting, impact on Creffield’s practice. With a long and distinguished career, Creffield will elucidate on his experience of being taught by Bomberg as a young man whilst still in his teens. The discussion will look at Bomberg’s approach, the atmosphere and dynamic of this unique pedagogic setting, and Bomberg’s legacy on Creffield’s practice and more.

Dennis Creffield was born in London in 1931; he now lives and works in Brighton. He studied with David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic from 1947 to 1951, and was elected to be a member of the Borough Group in 1949 on his eighteenth birthday. Following this he attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1957 to 1961, where he won the Tonks Prize for life drawing and the Steer Medal for landscape painting. In 1987 Creffield was commissioned by the Arts Council of Great Britain to draw all the medieval cathedrals in England, and in 1990 undertook to draw 11 of the northern French cathedrals. These cathedral works are perhaps Creffield’s most famous works to date (a selection of these drawings were shown at Pallant House in 2014); however the human body has also been a long-standing preoccupation. Works by Creffield are included in A David Bomberg Legacy – The Sarah Rose Collection, as well as numerous public collections, including Tate Britain, The British Museum, the Arts Council Collection, the Imperial War Museum and the National Trust Collection. He is represented by James Hyman.