Joshua Richard Compston (1 June 1970 – 5 March 1996) was a London curator and progressive thinker, whose company Factual Nonsense was closely associated with the emergence of the

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 ...

(YBAs).

Early life and career beginnings

Compston was born in

Putney Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. History Putney is an ancient paris ...

. The son of a judge, he was educated at

St Edward's School, Oxford St Edward's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Oxford, England. It is known informally as 'Teddies'. Approximately sixty pupils live in each of its thirteen houses. The school is a member of the Rugby G ...

. Encouraged by his parents, Compston became an enthusiastic collector of antiques and ephemera. In his adolescence, he developed a friendship with Sir Peter Blake, and would bring him gifts of found ephemera. Compston studied Art Foundation at

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgradu ...

, followed by History of Art at the

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

. At Camberwell, Compston was the contemporary of

Darren Coffield Darren Coffield (born 1969, in London) is a British painter. Biography Coffield studied at Goldsmiths College, Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Art in London, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in 1993 in Fine Arts. He has ex ...

, who later became his biographer. At the Courtauld he soon became frustrated that the academic lecturing staff were taking insufficient interest in the work of living artists, and that as a result students were ignorant of major figures in 20th century art. Traditionally, students at the Courtauld had been taught in rooms hung with the masterworks from the history of art borrowed from the affiliated Courtauld Gallery. Taking advantage of a relocation of the school t new premises in Somerset House, and newly empty walls in seminar rooms, he leveraged the Courtauld into exhibiting the work of contemporary painters on long-term temporary loan as 'The East Wing Collection' - a practice which continues to this day as 'The East Wing Biennial'. Past exhibitors in the Collection/Biennial include

Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American conceptual artist. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in New York City. Life Bochner was born in Pittsb ...

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

Howard Hodgkin Sir Gordon Howard Eliott Hodgkin (6 August 1932 – 9 March 2017) was a British Painting, painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with Abstract art, abstraction. Early life Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on 6 August 1 ...

Michael Landy Michael Landy (born 1963) is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). He is best known for the performance piece installation '' Break Down'' (2001), in which he destroyed all his possessions, and for the ''Art Bin'' project (2010) at the ...

Del LaGrace Volcano Del LaGrace Volcano (born July 26, 1957) is an American artist, performer, and activist from California. A formally trained photographer, Volcano's work includes installation, performance and film and interrogates the performance of gender on seve ...

Gilbert and George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...

Genesis P-Orridge Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (born Neil Andrew Megson; 22 February 1950 – 14 March 2020) was a singer-songwriter, musician, poet, performance artist, visual artist, and occultist who rose to notoriety as the founder of the COUM Transmissions arti ...

and

Martha Rosler Martha Rosler (born 1943) is an American artist. She is a conceptual artist who works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler's work is centered on everyday ...

. He graduated from the Courtauld in 1992. At this time, he was associated with the American gallerist

Maureen Paley Maureen Paley (born 1953Sleeman, Elizabeth (ed.) ''The International Who's Who of Women'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 431. Entry on Paley available as snippet viehere/ref>) is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Be ...

. Joshua Compston first worked in commercial galleries when he became David Taborn’s agent, curating Taborn’s show at Gallery 202, Notting Hill Gate in 198

Factual Nonsense

In 1993, he opened a gallery at 44a Charlotte Road,

Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...

, the first gallery to open in what was then a slightly run-down part of east London. European

Dadaist Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris ...

manifestos, 20th century propaganda and the Arts and Crafts Movement were influences in his creation of the Factual Nonsense brand and concept of social philosophy. The name of the gallery and art movement was taken from the title of a painting 'Factual Nonsense' by David Taborn, whose work 'A Guide For The Perplexed' was also used by Compston as the title for the gallery inaugural exhibition. As well as working with many of the artists of the

YBA 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 ...

movement, including

Gavin Turk Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist from Guildford in Surrey, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.Tate Modern. (2009)'Pop Life: Art in a Material World' Retrieved 14 August 2012. Turk's oeuvre deals with issues of aut ...

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Associate of the Royal Academy, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawi ...

Sarah Lucas Sarah Lucas (born 1962) is an English artist. She is part of the generation of Young British Artists who emerged during the 1990s. Her works frequently employ visual puns and bawdy humour by incorporating photography, collage and found objects. ...

Angus Fairhurst Angus Fairhurst (4 October 1966 – 29 March 2008) was an English artist working in installation, photography and video. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Life and work Angus Fairhurst was born in Pembury, Kent. Having attended ...

and

, Compston's main collaborator was the printer Thomas Shaw, with whom he created numerous Factual Nonsense posters, prints and other printed matter. Compston organised events in Shoreditch as a part of his deliberate vision: to shape an artistic community and to create an urban regeneration, both of which became his legacy. The events included two summer fetes (''A Fete Worse Than Death''), and a picnic in

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digita ...

(''The Hanging Picnic''). Compston's lasting legacy to Shoreditch was celebrated by a revival of ''A Fete Worse Than Death'' in 2014. His archive is held by the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

Death

In 1996, at the age of 25, Compston died as the result of taking

ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again be c ...

at his gallery in Charlotte Road, which was also his home. His coffin was painted with a

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...

pattern by

Gary Hume Gary Stewart Hume (born 9 May 1962) is an English artist. Hume's work is strongly identified with the YBA who came to prominence in the early 1990s. Hume lives and works in London and Accord, New York.

and Gavin Turk. His funeral was attended by several hundred mourners including leading figures of the London art scene. He is buried at

Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of Queens Park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, it was founded by the barrister George Frederic ...

. Compston's tomb, on which he is depicted laid out on his little

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

boat, was carved from Portland stone by the artist and cartoonist Zebedee Helm.

Published biographies

* Jeremy Cooper - ''No Fun Without U: The Art of Factual Nonsense'', 2000 *

- ''Factual Nonsense: The Art and Death of Joshua Compston'', 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compston, Joshua 1970 births 1996 deaths Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art British art curators Drug-related deaths in England