I am an active writer and commentator on art, and art history.
My particular passion lies in British and Irish artists of the mid-20th century. Having started as a collector, my fascination led on to research and writing.
A City lawyer by profession and a historian by training, I seek to bring to bear these disciplines in my analysis. In addition to my books, I have written extensively in The British Art Journal, reviewing exhibitions and books, with some longer articles involving original research. This website reproduces many of the reviews, as well as summaries of the longer articles.
Why History?
In 1976 I arrived from my country grammar school at the Historical shrine of Peterhouse. At the time, although the smallest of the colleges of Cambridge, it had the highest number of History dons.
The study of History was taken seriously and the effect on me was to be lifelong. The key people for me were Maurice Cowling and Brian Wormald. Sitting in front of these strange, intense men reading an undergraduate essay was profoundly challenging. Historical writing involved seeking to understand the reality behind why men acted in the way they did; and that reality was hugely complex and not to be confused with the descriptions of it in the work of historians. For those writing about the past always have an agenda. The identification and evaluation of that agenda is part of the reader’s challenge. The effort to abandon – or at least admit to – that agenda is part of the historian’s challenge.
Books
Irascible. The Combative Life of Douglas Cooper, Collector and Friend of Picasso
Publication April 2025. Douglas Cooper (1911-1984) was a pioneering collector of Cubist art, an art historian and one of the most important, and controversial, figures in the international art world of the 20th century. Based on extensive research and full of new material and fresh interpretations, the book focuses on Cooper’s colourful life and significant accomplishments. By Adrian Clark and Richard Calvocoressi, with a foreword by David Hockney.
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Fighting on All Fronts – John Rothenstein in the art world
During his time at the Tate, the British art world, of which he was a central figure, underwent huge changes. The Tate’s role and fortunes were transformed. His tenure also involved various controversies and he dealt with all of the leading figures of the time, such as Francis Bacon, Douglas Cooper, Anthony Blunt and Sir Alfred Munnings.
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Queer Saint: The Cultured Life of Peter Watson
Peter Watson was one of the most important cultural figures of the 1940’s and 1950’s. My biography of Watson, written in partnership with Jeremy Dronfield, covers the full range of Watson’s activities, particularly in London and Paris. It gives details of his relationships with many of the leading artists of his day, as well as exploring his sophisticated personality.
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British and Irish Art 1945-1951: From War to Festival
This book radically re-examines a crucial period of modern British and Irish art, from a historical viewpoint. By studying the intricate mechanisms whereby artists turned oil on canvas into money – or not – the book explains how artists’ reputations were made or broken. Individual artists discussed include Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland, Gerard Dillon, Robert Colquhoun, Paul Nash and many more.
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The Two Roberts: Colquhoun-Macbryde Exhibition Catalogue
This show, at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, 22 November 2014 to 24 May 2015, was the first opportunity to see a large quantity of the work of Robert Colquhoun and Robert Macbryde. I assisted with the catalogue, contributing to two of the four chapters.
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