Notes

John Egerton Christmas Piper was an English painter, printmaker, designer, and writer, and one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. He studied at the Richmond School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art. Piper was an art critic for The Listener and The Spectator, a member of The London Group and the Seven and Five Society, and was considered one of the leading abstract artists in England in the 1930s. Throughout his career he worked in different styles, including abstraction, surrealism and neo-Romanticism, but towards the end of the 1930s he returned to naturalism with a focus on architecture and the landscape. As an official war artist, Piper portrayed bomb-damaged buildings during WWII. Later in his career, Piper turned to printmaking and designing stage sets. He also designed over sixty stained-glass windows in partnership with Patrick Reyntiens, which included Coventry Cathedral and Eton College. Piper was commissioned to design tapestries for a number of English cathedrals.

Piper was made an Honorary Member of the Printmakers Council, served as a trustee of the Tate, and was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts. In addition, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was awarded a knighthood in 1972 for his contribution to British art and in 1984 he was awarded the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH).

Major retrospective exhibitions showcasing Piper’s works have been held at Tate Britain, the Imperial War Museum, the River and Rowing Museum, the Museum of Reading, and Dorchester Abbey and several exhibitions focusing on different elements of his artistic career have been shown throughout Britain.

John Piper’s works can be found in the Tate and many prestigious public collections throughout Britain, the United States of America, and Canada.

Literature

Orde Levinson (1987) John Piper: The Complete Graphic Works : A Catalog Raisonne, 1923-1983, London: Faber & Faber, unpaginated.