Reflections from a Film: Seven paintings by Chris Gollon (1953 - 2017)

A relatively late starter, Chris Gollon (1953 – 2017) was first spotted by critics in his mid-30s, when his work toured with the finalists of the Spectator Prize in 1989. In 1993, he was given his first solo museum exhibition at the Ferens Gallery, Hull (then Art Fund Museum of the Year).

In 1998, he exhibited at the Chisenhale Gallery, with Yoko Ono, David Bowie and Gavin Turk in ROOT – an exhibition of contemporary music and fine art created by Thurston Moore of the band Sonic Youth. Further boundary crossing collaborations included working with Grammy nominated classical musician and composer Yi Yao, and the Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy.

In 2000, Gollon was commissioned by the Church of England to paint fourteen site-specific Stations of the Cross for the Grade I listed Church of St John on Bethnal Green, designed by Sir John Soane. In 2004, he was invited to exhibit in St Paul’s Cathedral with Bill Viola, Maggi Hambling, Craigie Aitchison and Tracey Emin in Presence: Images of Christ for the Third Millennium.

In 2009, Gollon was the first non-academic to be made a Fellow and First Artist in Residence at the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, where he was invited to work with some of the world’s leading thinkers on the Being Human project. The same year, Gollon and his work were featured on Alan Yentob’s Imagine programme (BBC1). In 2010, the monograph ‘Chris Gollon: Humanity in Art’ by art historian Tamsin Pickeral was published, endorsed by Bill Bryson OBE (Copies are available at the Light House).

Gollon’s national touring exhibition to English cathedrals, Incarnation: Mary and Women from the Bible (2014 – 2016), focused exclusively on the stories of women from the Bible, with one of the paintings believed to be the first image of Judas Iscariot’s wife in art history.

Chris Gollon’s work is in major public collections, including the British Museum, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Hartlepool Art Gallery, Falmouth Art Gallery and Museum & Art Swindon; collections in which his work hangs with those by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and Gwen John. A year after his untimely death in 2017, Romsey Abbey purchased and permanently installed his St Ethelflaeda diptych. Museum exhibitions are being planned for 2028, the 75^th anniversary of Gollon’s birth, and in 2027, his ‘Magdalene at the Base of the Cross’ will be shown in Coventry Cathedral.

The recent documentary ‘CHRIS GOLLON: Life in Paint’ (85mins) features interviews with Maggi Hambling, Thurston Moore, Sara Maitland, Eleanor McEvoy, Yi Yao, and art historians Wilfrid Wright, Mary Rose Beaumont and Gollon biographer Tamsin Pickeral. It is currently being edited for broadcast and streaming. The Chris Gollon Estate is represented by IAP Fine Art.