“From his native Welsh valleys to the Australian outback, via romanticism, modernism and postmodernism, John Beard has remained intellectually and artistically itinerant and unfettered. His geographical meanderings parallel his ongoing discourses as painter. The whys, the hows, the wherefores. Through his drawn and painted marks he maps undiscovered spaces like a cartographer charting new terrains. Each brush stroke smeared on canvas or paper becomes a search for fresh vistas and new worlds.” – Sue Hubbard, award-winning poet, freelance art critic and novelist.
Messums is delighted to represent the contemporary painter John Beard, whose works have been exhibited worldwide and are held in the collections of major gallery museums and institutions, and to welcome him to the gallery for his first UK solo exhibition since 2013.
John Beard is a painter whose subject is as much the process of painting as it is the artworks he makes and his practice, which has spanned over forty years, explores important propositions about the role of painting in the 21st century. This continues with a new series of self-portraits inspired by the author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, Andreas Vesalius.
