Graham Sutherland (1903 - 1980) was a painter of imaginative landscapes, still life and figurative works. Born in 1903 in Streatham, he attended Epsom School and then studied art at Goldsmith’s School of Art (1921-26) where he quickly became a highly skilled etcher. In his work Sutherland developed an interest in natural forms of growth such as tree roots and thorn bushes which he often depicted in close-up or from foreshortened viewpoints. These organic growth formations, which remained central to Sutherland’s work throughout his career, often appeared menacing or threatening with their hints of human or animal like characteristics. He held his first and second exhibitions of drawings and engravings at the XXI Gallery, London, in 1925 and 1928. and was a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers from 1926-33.
Sutherland taught engraving at the Chelsea School of Art from 1926 and composition and book illustration 1935 -1940. He exhibited at the N.E.A.C. 1929-33 and with the London Group from 1932 (member 1936-7), experimenting with painting in oils from 1930 until, in 1935, he decided to become a painter after his first visit to Pembrokeshire. He participated in the International Surrealist Exhibition in London 1936 and had his first one-man exhibition of oil paintings, mainly Welsh landscapes, at the Paul Rosenberg and Helft Gallery 1938.
As an Official War Artist 1941-4 he painted scenes of bomb devastation and of work in mines and foundries. Sutherland's first New York exhibition was at the Buchholz Gallery 1946, and in the same year he completed the Crucifixion for St Matthew's Church, Northampton. He taught painting at Goldsmiths' College as a visiting instructor and since 1947 worked for several months each year on the French Riviera. He was a trustee of the Tate Gallery 1948-54 and during this time painted the portrait of Somerset Maugham in 1949, the first of a series of senior figures including Lord Beaverbrook and Sir Winston Churchill. He completed the designs for the renown Coventry Cathedral tapestry, Christ in Glory in the Tetramorph, between 1954 and 1957.
Important retrospective exhibitions have been held at the I.C.A. 1951, the Venice Biennale and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1952, the Tate Gallery 1953, and at the São Paulo Bienal, Brazil, 1955. Sutherland was awarded the O.M. in 1960.
Sutherland died in 1980 in Kent and today, his works are in the collections of the the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery, the Vatican Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and the Dallas Museum of Art, and many others.