Derrick Greaves (1927-), Painter

Sitter in 2 portraits
Artist of 2 portraits
Like Jack Smith, Derrick Greaves was born in Sheffield and the two grew up in the same street. Subsequently they both moved to London and continued to be closely associated, sharing rented accommodation while studying at the Royal College of Art. During the early 1950s the two painters' styles developed in parallel and, like Smith, Greaves had his first exhibition at the Beaux Arts Gallery in 1953. That debut also linked Greaves with the development of Kitchen Sink realism and he too exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1956. Greaves subsequently rejected his earlier adherence to everyday subject matter and developed a lighter, poetic and more allusive range of imagery.