Biography

Prunella Clough

Studied at Chelsea School of Art 1938-39 and did various jobs during World War II. Her first solo exhibition at the Leger Gallery was in 1947 and many others followed with a retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1960. Between 1946-49 she studied with Victor Pasmore at Camberwell School of Art and in the 1950’s was part of the group, which included Michael Ayrton, Keith Vaughan, John Craxton and Dylan Thomas, which met in the Camden Hill Studio, which John Minton shared with Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun. Her work was included in the 60 Paintings for '51 Festival of Britain exhibition and the first Sao Paolo Bienal. Clough taught part-time 1956-69 at Chelsea School of Art and 1966-1997 at Wimbledon School of Art. In 1999 Prunella Clough won the Jerwood Painting Prize, one of Britain's most distinguished art awards. In the early 40's she was inspired by surrealism, moved to industrial landscapes and in the early 1960’s she edged into abstraction and went on to bridge representational and abstract art. Prunella Clough was enormously admired by her fellow artists and was without doubt a great and enduring British artist. The Tate Gallery holds eight of her works in its collection and Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate said 'She was a marvellous painter and an extraordinary and elegiac abstract painter'.