Creffield, Dennis

The Mozart Effect

Dennis Creffield showed a series of paintings based on portraits of Mozart at Maltby Contemporary Art, Winchester as part of the Mozart Effect event) Painter and draughtsman born in London in 1931. From 1948-51 he studied under David Bomberg at Borough Polytechnic and from 1957-61 at Slade School of Fine Art.

He became a Gregory Fellow in Painting at University of Leeds, 1964-8 and winner of the Tonks Prize for Life Drawing and the Steer Medal for Landscape Painting. By then he had taken part in many mixed exhibitions, including John Moores Exhibition, Liverpool (1961) and with the London Group, of which he was elected a member in 1962.

Creffield had his first solo exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery in 1966, and many others followed, including Queen's Square Gallery, Leeds; Brighton Polytechnic Gallery; and Serpentine Gallery, London. In 1977 he won the Arts Council Major Award for Painting.

Creffield had an ambition to draw every cathedral and abbey church in England, and from this stemmed the South Bank touring exhibition of 1988-90 accompanied by an illustrated book 'English Cathedrals' (1987) with text written by Creffield. In 1992 a major exhibition of 'Paintings and Drawings of London, 1960-1990' was held at the Barbican Gallery, and 1993-5, Gillian Jason Gallery presented a touring exhibition of his 'Paintings of Petworth'.

Creffield is a powerful artist in the Bomberg Expressionistic tradition and his works are held in numerous public, private and corporate collections, including the Arts Council and Tate Gallery, London.