Billy Childish has spent 50 years making raw, fast, deliberately unpolished paintings, records and books, treating amateurism as a point of principle rather than a limitation. Working chiefly in thick, expressive oil and charcoal, his style evokes artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch.
Childish co-founded the Stuckism art movement in 1999 as a protest against conceptual art's dominance of the British scene. Alongside painting, Childish is a prolific woodblock printmaker, working from his own studio and print workshop in Kent, releasing more than 100 albums as a singer and guitarist across a parallel career in garage rock and punk.
Childish co-founded the Stuckism art movement in 1999 as a protest against conceptual art's dominance of the British scene. Alongside painting, Childish is a prolific woodblock printmaker, working from his own studio and print workshop in Kent, releasing more than 100 albums as a singer and guitarist across a parallel career in garage rock and punk.
Summary
Billy Childish has spent 50 years making raw, fast, deliberately unpolished paintings, records and books, treating amateurism as a point of principle rather than a limitation. Working chiefly in thick, expressive oil and charcoal, his style evokes artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch.
Childish co-founded the Stuckism art movement in 1999 as a protest against conceptual art's dominance of the British scene. Alongside painting, Childish is a prolific woodblock printmaker, working from his own studio and print workshop in Kent, releasing more than 100 albums as a singer and guitarist across a parallel career in garage rock and punk.
Childish co-founded the Stuckism art movement in 1999 as a protest against conceptual art's dominance of the British scene. Alongside painting, Childish is a prolific woodblock printmaker, working from his own studio and print workshop in Kent, releasing more than 100 albums as a singer and guitarist across a parallel career in garage rock and punk.
Artworks by Billy Childish
About Billy Childish
Biography
About Billy Childish
Billy Childish was born Steven John Hamper in 1959 in Kent. He struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia throughout his childhood, left school at 16 and apprenticed briefly as a stonemason. He produced hundreds of drawings during that year that later earned him a place at art college, though he was expelled from Saint Martin's School of Art after less than two years.
Stuck in Chatham, on purpose
Childish co-founded the Stuckism movement with the artist Charles Thomson in 1999. The movement takes its name from a remark made by Childish’s former partner, Tracey Emin, who described his art as ‘stuck’.
The movement championed figurative painting and personal expression against what its founders saw as the empty cleverness of conceptual art. Its first exhibition was staged that same year, though Childish left in 2001 to focus on his own painting, poetry and music without a group label attached to it.
Woodcuts and an old iron press
Printmaking has been central to Childish's work since his earliest years, most visibly through his own woodcuts, cut and printed by hand at the London workshop, L-13 Light Industrial Workshop. His woodcut editions have illustrated his own record sleeves and books, as well as standing as artworks in their own right.
Biography
About Billy Childish
Billy Childish was born Steven John Hamper in 1959 in Kent. He struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia throughout his childhood, left school at 16 and apprenticed briefly as a stonemason. He produced hundreds of drawings during that year that later earned him a place at art college, though he was expelled from Saint Martin's School of Art after less than two years.
Stuck in Chatham, on purpose
Childish co-founded the Stuckism movement with the artist Charles Thomson in 1999. The movement takes its name from a remark made by Childish’s former partner, Tracey Emin, who described his art as ‘stuck’.
The movement championed figurative painting and personal expression against what its founders saw as the empty cleverness of conceptual art. Its first exhibition was staged that same year, though Childish left in 2001 to focus on his own painting, poetry and music without a group label attached to it.
Woodcuts and an old iron press
Printmaking has been central to Childish's work since his earliest years, most visibly through his own woodcuts, cut and printed by hand at the London workshop, L-13 Light Industrial Workshop. His woodcut editions have illustrated his own record sleeves and books, as well as standing as artworks in their own right.
