Ray Richardson

Né en 1964 (Royaume-Uni), il vit et travaille à Woolwich. 

 

Ray Richardson peint des scènes de la vie de tous les jours issues de sa propre expérience : son quartier natal du Sud-Est de Londres, ses souvenirs de voyages ou des préoccupations plus personnelles parfois exprimées à travers son double emblématique, un bull-terrier anglais. Il modèle cette matière première en combinant “le travail traditionnel de peinture avec une façon cinématographique de voir les choses” (gros plan, longs formats allongés, jeu d’ombres et de perspectives) qui lui a valu le surnom de “Martin Scorsese de la peinture figurative”.

 

Ses compositions sophistiquées font référence à la tradition picturale (William Hogarth, Edward Hopper, paysagisme anglais, expressionnisme abstrait) et à la culture contemporaine populaire (la photographie de rue américaine, les film noirs, les romans de James Ellroy, la sous-culture mod, la Soul musique, le football). Mélange d’humour, de drame et d’ironie, la peinture narrative de Ray Richardson dépeint tout une fresque sociale périphérique, celle du prolétariat et des classes moyennes.

 

Diplômé de Central Saint Martins et de Goldsmiths, il a reçu plusieurs prix, dont le BP Portrait Award et le British Council Award à plusieurs reprises. Son œuvre figure dans de nombreuses collections publiques et privées : Victoria and Albert Museum, Fondation Carmignac, The National Portrait Gallery, Ingram Collection, Ruth Borchard Collection….

          

Born in 1964 (United-Kingdom), he lives and works in Woolwich.

 

Ray Richardson paints everyday life scenes based on his own experience: his native area of South-East London, travel memories or personal concerns expressed through his emblematic double, an English Bull Terrier. He shapes this material by combining “the traditional stuff of painting with the cinematic ways of looking at things” (close-up, elongated horizontal formats, use of light and perspective) that has earned him the nickname of “Martin Scorsese of figurative painting”.

 

His sophisticated framings refer both to pictorial tradition (William Hogarth, Edward Hopper, British landscapes paintings, abstract expressionism) and to contemporary popular cultures (American street photography, film noir, James Ellroy novels, mods subculture, Soul music, football). Mixing humor, drama and irony, Ray Richardson’s narrative painting depicts a whole social and peripheral panorama, the one of working and middle-class.

 

Graduated from Central Saint Martins and Goldsmiths, he has been the recipient of several prizes, such as the BP Portrait Award and the British Council Award many times. His work is part of many public and private collections: Victoria and Albert Museum, Fondation Carmignac, The National Portrait Gallery, Ingram Collection, Ruth Borchard Collection….

Selected Press

Cheerio In Conversation: Austin Collings with Ray Richardson

Talking to Ray is like overhearing uber-Cockney darts player Bobby George having a chinwag with Rembrandt in a South-East London boozer, if you can get your head around that oddest of odd couples.

Zigzags Zoé Schreiber

Au fil de ses toiles, Ray Richardson nous donne les clés de lecture de son univers et la fresque sociale qu’il peint lève le voile sur les acteurs d’une Angleterre située aux marges de la ville de Londres.

Turps Banana Our Side of the Water - Marcus Harvey on Ray Richardson

James Ellroy's response was that most art was shit except for Ray Richardson's

The Times Giles Sutherland

Celebration and joy in a gritty close-up of imperfection

Mayfair Times Sinead Cranna

Richardson goes raw

Big Issue North Preview: Reality – Modern and Contemporary British Painting

Major twentieth century artists, each showing the stuff of real life, form a new exhibition in Liverpool. Richard Smirke talks to the curator who turned a pipe dream into Reality

Wall Street International Fresh start
News shopper Nikki Jarvis

Man's best friend stars in artist Ray Richardson's new exhibition London's Top Dog

The Independent Iain Gale

Richardson's concern is not, like Howson, the grandiose, Hogarthian set-piece allegory - but an Impressionist-like storybook narrative redolent of the cinema of David Lynch and at times, Jean-Luc Godard.