Andrew Tift (born 1968) is a British realist portraitist.

Early life

Andrew Tift was born in 1968 in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

, England.National Portrait Gallery: Andrew Tift
/ref> He was educated at the Stafford College of Art.National Portrait Gallery: BP Portrait Award 2006
/ref> He then graduated from the

University of Central England , mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business" , established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843— Birmingham College of Art , type = Public , affiliation = ...

Career

He is a realist portraitist. In 1998, he did a portrait of

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

, a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament from 1950 to 2001.Art in Parliament: The Rt Hon Tony Benn MP, Andrew Tift
/ref> He also did a portrait of

Glenys Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...

, who served as a Labour Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2009. His portrait of

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...

, who served as the Labour Mayor of London from 2000 to 2008, has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery since 2014.Mark Brown
Ken Livingstone: first painted portrait of former London mayor on display
''The Guardian'', 3 July 2014 He was also commissioned by the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

to do a portrait of

Peter Carington, 6th Baron Carrington Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron Carrington, Baron Carington of Upton, (6 June 1919 – 9July 2018), was a British Conservative Party politician and hereditary peer who served as Defence Secretary from 1970 to 1974, Foreign Secretary ...

. He was the recipient of the BP Travel Award in 1995 for ''Sayonara Pet''. In 2006, he received the

BP Portrait Award The BP Portrait Award is an annual portraiture competition held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England. It is the successor to the John Player Portrait Award. It is the most important portrait prize in the world, and is reputedly ...

for his

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek language, Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) t ...

Kitty Garman Kathleen Eleonora "Kitty" Garman, later Kitty Epstein and Kitty Godley (27 August 1926 – 11 January 2011), was a British artist and muse. She was a model for her father Jacob Epstein, her first husband Lucian Freud (including '' Portrait of Ki ...

Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...

's first wife, entitled ''Kitty''.David Ward
Tift triptych goes on show in artist's home town
''The Guardian'', 22 May 2007 The triptych is now at the New Art Gallery in Walsall.

Personal life

He resides in the West Midlands.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tift, Andrew Living people 1968 births Alumni of Birmingham Institute of Art and Design British painters British male painters People from Walsall