John Grenville Stezaker (born 1949) is a British

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called ins ...

ist.

Biography and career

Stezaker attended the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in his early teens, he graduated with a Higher Diploma in Fine Art in 1973. In the early 1970s, he was among the first wave of British

ists to react against what was then the predominance of Pop art.Colin Gleadell,
"Market news,"

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

, 24 July 2007. Solo exhibitions for Stezaker were rare for sometime, however, in the mid-2000s, his work was rediscovered by the art market; he is now collected by several international collectors and museums. His work is surreal in tone and is often made using

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an Assemblage (art), assemblage of different forms, thus creat ...

and the appropriation of pre-existing images such as

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as woo ...

s, film stills, and publicity photographs. Art historian

Julian Stallabrass Julian Stallabrass is a British art historian, photographer and curator. He was educated at Leighton Park School and New College, Oxford University where he studied PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics). A Marxist, he has written extensive ...

said, "The contrast at the heart of these works y Stezakeris not between represented and real, but between the unknowing primitives of popular culture, and the conscious, ironic artist and viewer of post-modern images." One work included in an exhibition at Salama-Caro Gallery, London, in 1991, depicted an image of a punch clock together with the caption "Why Spend Time on an Exhibition Like This?"Henry Bond, "Haunting with Second-Hand Images," ''

Creative Camera ''Creative Camera'' (also known as "CC") was a British monthly/bi-monthly magazine devoted to fine art photography and documentary photography. The successor to the very different (hobbyist) magazine '' Camera Owner'' (which had started in 1964), ...

'', Issue 309, April–May 1991, p. 48. Colin Gleadell wrote in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' in 2007 that Stezaker "is now being hailed as a major influence on the Young British Art movement," in reference to

Young British Artists The Young British Artists, or YBAs—also referred to as Brit artists and Britart—is a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London in 1988. Many of the YBA artists graduated from the BA Fine Art course at Goldsm ...

. Until 2006, Stezaker was Senior Tutor in Critical and Historical Studies at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...

in London.

Solo exhibitions

* ''Works, 1969–1971,'' Sigi Krauss Gallery, London, 1970. Catalogue available. * ''Beyond Art for Art’s Sake: a Propus Mundus,'' Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1972. Catalogue available. * The Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 1973 * Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1973. * Galerie Decembre, Munster, 1974 * Galleria Lia Rumma, Rome, 1974 * Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples, 1974 * Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1975 * Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, 1975 * Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1976 * ''Trois Oeuvres hree Works'' Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, 1976. Catalogue available. * ''Dream Allegories. John Stezaker Collages 1976-1977.'' Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, 1977. Catalogue available. * Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, 1977 * Schema Gallery, Florence, 1977 * Spectro Arts, Newcastle, UK, 1977 * ''Fragments,''

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established ...

, London, 1978. Catalogue available. * ''Collages, 1977–1978,'' Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1978. Catalogue available. * Southampton City Museum, Southampton, UK, 1978 * Galerie Éric Fabre, Paris, 1979 * ''Werke 1973-1978,'' Kuntsmueum Luzern, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland, 1979. Catalogue available.

Selected publications

* ''John Stezaker: Marriage.'' Ridinghouse, 2007. With an essay by Cecilia Järdemar. * ''John Stezaker: Masks.'' Ridinghouse in association with The Approach, 2008. * ''The 3rd Person Archive, John Stezaker.'' Koenig Books, 2009. * ''John Stezaker: Tabula Rasa.'' Ridinghouse in association with The Approach, 2010. * ''John Stezaker: Silk Screens.'' Ridinghouse, 2010. Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith. * ''John Stezaker.'' Ridinghouse, 2011. Published to accompany an exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, London * ''John Stezaker: Film Still.'' Ridinghouse, 2011. With text and interview between

David Campany David Campany (born 8 October 1967) is a British writer, curator, artist and educator, working mainly with photography. He has written and edited books; contributed essays and reviews to other books, journals, magazines and websites; curated pho ...

and the artist. * ''John Stezaker: Nude and Landscape.'' Ridinghouse in association with Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, 2013. * ''John Stezaker: One on One.'' Ridinghouse in association with Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2013.

References

External links

Stezaker's profile at his gallery, The Approach''Guardian'': Artist of the week 72 (02/2010)Interview with John Stezaker by Andrew Warstat : ''Parallax'', Volume 16, Issue 2 May 2010 , pages 68 - 78
*Newman on John Stezaker : ''Parallax'', Volume 16, Issue 2 May 2010 , pages 79 - 86
The Whitechapel Gallery: John Stezaker
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stezaker, John British conceptual artists 1949 births Artists from Worcester, England Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Academics of the Royal College of Art Living people English contemporary artists