Times War Artist Paints Kingston Museum
The Friends of Kingston Museum & Heritage Service are pleased to announce the completion of the latest picture they have commissioned for the Museum’s striking Brill Collection. It is of Kingston Museum and the artist is Matthew Cook, who studied art in Kingston and who has recently returned from Iraq where he was The Times War Artist.
Kingston Museum by Matthew Cook
Matthew Cook was born in Surrey in 1963. He studied at St Martin’s and Kingston Schools of Art, graduating with a first class BA Honours. Keen on reportage drawing, he spent three years drawing with Operation Raleigh as expedition artist before starting a career in illustration. Matthew has drawn stamps for The Royal Mail, and sketches for National Geographic, the Clothworkers’ Livery Company and The Times Newspaper. An illustrated book on the British Season and an American book on golfing took him on his travels again. He has recently returned from the war in Iraq where he was Times War Artist and an exhibition of this work is due at the Coningsby Gallery in London in 2005. Mostly working in acrylic inks straight into sketchbooks, his recurring theme is men and women at work.
Kingston’s Brill Collection
Kingston Museum’s Brill Collection of paintings had its origin in an idea by Reginald Brill, a distinguished artist and head of the former Kingston School of Art (now part of Kingston University). My proposal would be to put the Borough in the position of being a patron of the arts whilst at the same time securing records for the future, said Brill, writing in 1954. Due to Brill’s enthusiasm, paintings of sites in Kingston (many now gone due to redevelopment) were commissioned annually from 1955 to 1974. Many of the artists were teachers at Kingston School of Art. The scheme lapsed after Brill’s death, but was revived again in 1997 by the Museum Friends. Commissions and competitions amongst the Illustration students at Kingston University have ensured the continuation of the scheme.
We are delighted that Matthew was able to give up precious time to paint the museum, said Anne McCormack, Head of Kingston Museum and Heritage Service. It carries on a long association with Kingston’s art school and its successors and is a fitting picture to celebrate the beginning of the Museum’s second century.
A catalogue of the Brill Collection was published by the Museum Friends with support from the Surrey Comet in 2004. Paintings of a Changing Kingston by June Sampson and Henrietta Harris can be purchased from the Museum or Borders and the Regency Bookshops. Price £10.
Feb 2005
Contact: Anne McCormack 020 8547 6756.
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