Peter de Francia, b.1921

Peter de Francia


1921
Born, Beaulieu, Alpes Maritimes, France
Education: Academy of Brussels

1938-40
Slade School, University of London

1945-48
Appointments: Canadian Government Exhibition Commission, Ottawa

1949-50
Architects’ Department, American Museum, New York

1951
Head of Fine Art Programming, BBC Television

1952-54
Department of Art History and Complementary Studies, St Martin’s School of Art, London

1954-61
Department of Art History and Complementary Studies, Royal College of Art, London
Principal, Department of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London

1970-72
Professor of Painting (postgraduate), Royal College of Art, London

1972-1986
DAAD Fellowship, Berlin

1990
Visiting Professor, Baroda

1991
Visiting tutor, New York Studio School and School of Fine Art, Nicosia.



SOLO EXHIBITIONS

1958
Colonna Gallery, Milan

1958
Waddington Galleries, London (catalogue)

1959
Colonna Gallery, Milan

1961
Galerie d’Eendt, Amsterdam

1962
Gallery of the Union of Czech Writers, Prague

1962
Forum Gallery, New York

1969
New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh

1976
New Art Centre, London

1977
Retrospective Exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London and New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh

1978
Gallery of the Institute of Cultural Relations, Budapest

1980
New Art Centre, London

1983
Forum Gallery, New York (Guttuso essay)

1987
Retrospective Exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London (catalogue)

1987
Peter de Francia: Paintings and drawings, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (leaflet, essay by David Alston)

1989
Untitled, Frith Street Gallery, London (drawings from Untitled)

1990
Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London

1991
Centre for Contemporary Art, New Delhi

1995
Gloria Gallery, Nicosia, Cyprus

1996
Drawings 1993-96, Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London (catalogue)

1999
Ballets africains, Drawings, The Place, London

1999
Drawings, Ruskin School, Oxford

2002
Fables and Other Drawings, 1990-2001, Queen’s Gallery, British Council, New Delhi (catalogue)

2003-6
“The Bombing of Sakiet” on display at Tate Modern

2004
Drawings, The Gallery, Wimbledon School of Art

2005
After the Bombing, James Hyman Fine Art (catalogue)

2006
Portraits, James Hyman Fine Art (catalogue)

2006
Peter de Francia, Tate Britain (brochure, interview by Philip Dodd)

2007-8
The Ship of Fools: Peter de Francia in Focus, Pallant House, Chichester

2008
Modern Myths, New York Studio School (catalogue)



SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1952
Looking Forward, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (catalogue)

1956
Looking Forward 2, South London Art Gallery

1964
Pittsburgh International, USA

1966
Survey ’66, Figurative Painters, Hampstead Art Centre, London (catalogue)

1975
Body and Soul, Peter Moores Liverpool Project 3, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

1976
20^th-Century Drawing, Marlborough Gallery, London
The Human Clay, Hayward Gallery, London (catalogue)

1977
British Painting 1952-1977, Royal Academy of Arts, London (catalogue)

1979-80
Narrative Painting, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
Arnolfini, Bristol, City Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on- Trent, Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh (catalogue)

1980
British Art 1940-1980 (Arts Council Collection), Hayward Gallery, London (catalogue)

1982
The Hayward Annual, British Drawing, Hayward Gallery, London (catalogue)
The Subjective Eye: New tendencies in British figurative art; University Gallery, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (catalogue)

1983
Forum Art Gallery, New York: Britain salutes New York, 3 British artists, Carole Robb, Peter de Francia, Thomas Newbolt

1984
The Forgotten Fifties, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield and Camden Arts Centre, London (catalogue)

1985-6
In Their Circumstances, Usher Art Gallery, Lincoln, Ashley Gallery, Epsom, Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery, Crawford Centre for the Arts, University of St Andrew’s, Peter Scott Gallery, University of Lancaster, Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull

1987
Human Interest, Cornerhouse, Manchester and Arts Council tour (catalogue)
Art History: Artists look at contemporary Britain, Hayward Gallery, London

1989
Blasphemies, Ecstasies, Cries, Serpentine Gallery, London (catalogue)
School of London: Works on paper, Odette Gilbert Gallery, London (catalogue)

1997
Modern British Art: The first hundred years, Pallant House, Chichester

2000        
Carnivalesque, Hayward Gallery, London/Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, national touring exhibition, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, City Art Centre, Edinburgh (catalogue)

2004
Drawn Together (five artists), Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London

2006
Drawing Inspiration, Abbot Hall Art Gallery/Lakeland Arts Trust, Kendal (catalogue)
Portraits: Andrews, Auerbach, Bevan, Coldstream, de Francia, Freud, Kossoff, Moynihan, Paolozzi, James Hyman Fine Art, London
Wilson Gift, Pallant House, Chichester
New Directions: Paintings and drawings from the 1950s and 1960s by Michael Andrews, Peter de Francia, Derrick Greaves and Robert Medley James Hyman Fine Art, London

2006-8
Drawing Breath, to mark 10 years of the Jerwood Drawing Prize
The Gallery, Wimbledon College of Art,
National Art School Galleries, Sydney, Australia,
Royal West of England Academy, Bristol,
Aberdeen Foyer/Robert Gray University (catalogue)

2006-7
Home and Away, James Hyman Fine Art, London

2007
A tribute to Sir Colin St John Wilson, James Hyman Gallery, London



PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Arts Council of Great Britain
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
British Council, New Delhi
British Museum, London
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield
Imperial War Museum, London
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum of Modern Art, Prague
National Portrait Gallery, London
Pallant House, Chichester, Wilson Gift
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
Tate, London
Ulster Museum, Belfast
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Wimbledon School of Art


PUBLICATIONS

1969
Léger: The great parade (monograph), Cassell, London

1985
The Life and Work of Fernand Léger, Yale University Press, London

1989
Udentitel, Brondum Publishers, Copenhagen/Untitled Frith Street Gallery, London

2002
Fables, Maruts Press, London

Book covers: A Painter of Our Time, by John Berger
Jazz, by F.H. Newton (Eric Hobsbawm)

Set of lithographs for poems of René Char, commissioned by Brondum, Copenhagen, never published.