... was born in London in 1931. His family's home was destroyed by a Nazi bomb during World War II, and as a teenager he spent three years in Wormwood Scrubs prison for housebreaking and petty theft. During his incarceration he read Lust for Life, Irving Stone's novel about Vincent van Gogh, and this sparked his interest in art. He later said that he felt sorry for artists "who hadn't had much happen in their early life".
He studied art after his release from prison, and in 1957 he moved to New York. There he met and fell under the influence of artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Auerbach. He progressed from a traditional, naturalistic style of painting into photorealism (paintings that imitate photography). His later work was more expressionist in style (presenting its subjects subjectively, for emotional effect).
He died in New York in 2018, six days before his 87th birthday.
© Haydn Thompson 2020