Chris Gollon Artist Portfolio

Published by Hyde & Hughes 2010
ISBN 978-0-9563851-0-9

Chris Gollon Humanity in Art is a lively and studied account of the life and work of leading contemporary artist Chris Gollon, an artist who brings humanity in all its forms to the canvas, in works often gently ironic and markedly perceptive. Self-taught like Francis Bacon, unconventional and often challenging, Gollon has breathed new direction into contemporary painting. Bringing his fascinating life peopled with musicians, enormous characters, strange occurrences, desperate lows and great successes to the canvas, he now counts amongst one of the twenty-first century’s most important, and charismatic artists.

‘Chris Gollon’s work is wonderfully provocative and inspiring and added an exciting new dimension to the Being Human project at Durham’s Institute of Advanced Study on the Palace Green world heritage site.’
Bill Bryson OBE, International author and Durham University Chancellor

‘Like [Stanley] Spencer, he dramatises the everyday in contemporary images and, depicting our clumsy, ridiculous ordinariness, brings alive for a modern, cynical audience the ghastly dissonance of this story of good and evil, sacrifice and humanity, answering on its own terms a 21st-century culture that regards the heroic as absurd.’
Critic’s Choice, Jackie Wullschlager, Chief Visual Arts Critic, Financial Times

To purchase signed copies of this book, click: Humanity in Art

Published by Continuum (London & New York) 2009
ISBN 978-0-8264-0568

Award-winning novelist Sara Maitland’s book entitled Stations of the Cross is a remarkable collaboration between a well-known author and a high-profile artist. Sara Maitland’s powerful stories transport the reader to first century Jerusalem, into the minds and hearts of the characters who played a part in Jesus’s journey to Calvary. Chris Gollon’s Stations of the Cross (the inspiration for the stories) were commissioned for the grade-one listed Church of St John on Bethnal Green, designed by Sir John Soane and situated next to the Museum of Childhood. In 2009, after nine years in the making, Gollons 14 paintings were permanently installed and subsequently blessed by Richard Chartres, Bishop of London. The foreword and afterword in this book give the story of this remarkable commission. All 14 paintings are reproduced next to the stories each inspired.

To purchase a copy, click here.

To purchase a Special Collectors Edition (incl silk-screen print by Chris Gollon), click: here.

Published by Durham University 2009
ISBN 978-0-9561840-1-6

This 52-page full-colour catalogue contains reproductions of all 16 paintings Chris Gollon produced while he was Fellow & First Artist in Residence (Jan – Mar 2009) at the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, as well as selected works from the Early Thoughts series Gollon produced prior to the Fellowship.

An introductory text by Prof Ash Amin, Executive Director, Institute of Advanced Study, on both the paintings and the interaction between Chris Gollon and selected Fellows, is followed by very insightful texts on Chris Gollon’s paintings from the Directors and Fellows of the IAS who collaborated on the Being Human project, and also a perceptive overview of the artist’s work by art historian Tamsin Pickeral. Contributors include Prof Ingo Gildenhard, Prof Adi Ophir, Prof Frances Bartkowski and Prof Eduardo Mendietta. In a very readable and stimulating fashion, it documents this unique Fellowship and Residency, and the cross fertilization of ideas which flowed between a leading fine artist and prominent academics and thinkers from 3 continents.

To purchase a copy, click: Being Human

Published by Merrell (London & New York) 2008
ISBN 978-1-8589-4420-3

The writer and art historian Tamsin Pickeral chose Chris Gollon’s Anubis & Charon (1997), devoting a page to the Gollon painting in the chapter entitled The Mythical Dog to feature alongside works by Breughel, Rembrandt, Titian, Velasquez, Oudry, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Rubens. She writes very intelligently and insightfully about Chris Gollon’s work and this particular painting. This hardback book contains powerful images and well-researched text about Man’s ever-changing view of the dog, from one of Man’s earliest beliefs in the dog as deity or psychopomp (conductor of souls), dwelling both in the physical and supernatural worlds, to a whole spectrum of belief across many cultures depicting the dog as deity or devil, noble or bestial, adored or abhorred. As the author remarks: “In many ways, the emergence of the dog in art, from its first marginal depictions to its increasingly central role, particularly in paintings, mirrors the dog’s creeping steps over the threshold of human society. Conversely, the prevalence of the dog’s appearance in art through the ages has left a vivid account of its place, and role, in human history.”

“Absurd, superb, this richly illustrated and impeccably designed narrative stretches from Eyptian sarcophagi to ‘Cave Canem’ Roman mosaics to Franz Marc’s harmonious zoos, and Lucien Freud’s whippets, with art history triumphing over sentiment.”
The Financial Times, November 29/30. Voted one of the top fifty books of the year, and reviewed by Jackie Wullschager, Chief Visual Arts Critic, Financial Times.

This book is available from Amazon & all good bookshops.

Published by Art & Christianity Enquiry on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Commission’ at Wallspace, London EC2 in autumn 2010.

ISBN 978-0-9551485-1-4

This 72 page publication is a survey of some of the greatest contemporary art commissions for British churches over the last 40 years, from Henry Moore to Tracey Emin and Chris Gollon. It contains images of the works permanently installed in churches and cathedrals, as well as texts by the artists themselves, including Sir Anthony Caro, Tracey Emin, Chris Gollon, Christopher Le Brun and Alison Watt. It also looks at the commissioning process itself, with illuminating texts by Paul Bayley (Art in Churches Officer), Laura Moffatt (Director, ACE Trust) and leading art critic Laura Gascoigne.

To obtain a copy of this publication, please contact ACE direct: enquiries@acetrust.org or +44 (0) 207-374 0600