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Brian Eno

2 of 6 portraits of Brian Eno

© DACS / Tom Phillips 2021

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Brian Eno

by Tom Phillips
oil on board, 1984-1985
11 7/8 in. x 10 in. (301 mm x 255 mm)
Purchased, 2007
Primary Collection
NPG 6823

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Tom Phillips (1937-2022), Artist, writer and composer; Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Artist or producer of 22 portraits, Sitter in 6 portraits.

This portraitback to top

As well as being a leading portraitist, Phillips is a writer and composer. Phillips taught Eno, who studied painting, at Ipswich Art School in the late 1960s.

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1984back to top

Current affairs

The Provisional IRA bomb the Grand Hotel in Brighton where various politicians, including the Prime Minister, where staying for the annual Conservative Party conference. The bomb killed five people including a conservative MP, but no members of the cabinet. Thatcher began the next session of the conference the following morning at 9.30 as planned saying: 'all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.'

Art and science

Dr Alec Jeffreys discovers that patterns in an individual's DNA can be identified and that each person has a unique 'genetic fingerprint'. The technique was soon utilised by forensic scientists to help in criminal investigations, and in order to identify human remains, for paternity testing, and to match organ donors.
Ted Hughes is appointed poet Laureate.

International

Ethiopia suffers severe drought and famine. The Ethiopian government responded by uprooting large numbers of peasants in the worst affected areas and by setting up new villages for the displaced people. However, the planned villages were frequently poorly equipped and many people chose to flee rather than acquiesce with government plans leading to further decline in food production and bringing the total death toll to over 1 million.

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