Clive Head

Clive Head (b. 1965) is the leading British realist painter of his generation, known for his striking paintings of urban landscapes. He has achieved a worldwide reputation and his work is held in private and public collections internationally. Although there is a clear link between Head´s work and the traditions of American Photorealism, the paintings extend that tradition by drawing on a European history of art, with the result that Head´s work is as much a descendant of Canaletto, Constable and Ginner as Estes, Bectel and Goings. In his working method, Head seeks to embody a strong sense of place, not simply as a record of the look of a place, but as the expression of a place by a particular person. This is the first full-length monograph on his work and sets out to introduce it to a wider audience. It incorporates a short history of Clive Head´s work to date, examining a number of his paintings in detail in order to illuminate his working processes. Michael Paraskos argues that Head´s paintings, in their depiction of multiple viewpoints, have parallels with Cubism, although unlike the Cubists Head seeks to unify multiple viewpoints into a coherent scene, so that the shattering effect disappears. This places Head at the forefront of contemporary aesthetic theory and practice as he seeks to reinvent realist painting for the twenty-first century. The book is illustrated with 100 large-format images, which will help to establish Clive Head as a leading figure in contemporary painting.