Graham Crowley

Graham Crowley (born 1950) is a British painter. He studied at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Royal College of Art.

His style evolved from abstract flat forms and bold colours in the 1970s towards a later focus on more figurative subjects, in particular in domestic settings. In the 1990s, he moved from England to West Cork, Ireland, where he focused on landscape painting.

On returning to England, he was appointed Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art in 1998. In 2023, he won the John Moores Painting Prize with his tenth entry since 1976.

Life and career Early life, education, and early work Graham Crowley was born on 3 May 1950 in Romford, London. His heritage is Irish and Polish Jewish. He studied at Saint Martin's School of Art from 1968 to 1972, and the Royal College of Art from 1972 to 1975.

Crowley's 1970s abstract paintings were characterised by bold colours, flat forms and what Marco Livingstone calls "a playful post-Cubist idiom". One such work, Tug (1975), was Crowley's first entry in the John Moores Painting Prize in 1976 for the prize's tenth edition. It is made using chalk on a canvas collage, hung on its point, and is held in the Arts Council Collection. Initially seeming to be romantic, idyllic vistas, these landscapes actually include details like telephone cables and "viler desecrations" (Livingstone)