The Brook Gallery

Bill Jacklin RA

Born in London in 1943, Bill Jacklin studied graphics at Walthamstow School of Art, London before working as a graphic designer at Studio Seven in Holborn.

In 1962 he returned to Walthamstow to study painting and subsequently went on to the Royal College of Art. Between 1967 and 1975, Jacklin taught at Chelsea School of Art, Hornsey and Royal College of Art and at schools in Kent and Surrey.

Initially concerned with abstraction, his work moved to figuration in the mid 1970s, when it became preoccupied with the effects of light and movement.

Jacklin was awarded an Arts Council Bursary in 1975, the year that marked his first two solo exhibitions at the Upper Gallery and at Nigel Greenwood in London. His work continued to be exhibited in one-man shows throughout the seventies in London and later in the eighties in London and New York with Marlborough Fine Art and Marlborough Gallery, respectively. He also participated in numerous group exhibitions internationally from the early seventies. Jacklin has undertaken many  commissions, notably from the Bank of England, the Ivy Restaurant, De Beers and most recently from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority for the North Terminal of Washington National Airport.

Moving to New York in 1985, Bill Jacklin has concentrated on painting 'Urban Portraits' of 'the city' in all its guises; from large scale canvases of crowds in flux to intimate moments in Seurat-like etchings. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1991 and in 1993 was Official Artist-in-Residence for the British Council in Hong Kong. Jacklin presently lives and works in New York.

'As a child living in London during the 50s, it was a great treat to be able to leave the city to visit the countryside. One year my sister and I were invited by neighbours to visit Dorset and Devon. I still have memories of feeling the morning dew on my face and the farmhouse smells enveloping me which was so different to a war torn London with its endless fog.'

'I learnt to swim that summer, largely by being swept too far out to sea by its undercurrents and having to somewhat manically dog paddle my way back back to shore. I guess that's a metaphor of some sort.'

Bill Jacklin May 2011

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