Tom Phillips CBE (born May 24, 1937) is a British artist. He was born in London, where he continues to work. He is a painter and collagist, and works in other media as well. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in decreasing order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand... May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Art (or the creative arts) commonly refers to the act and process of making material works (or artworks) which, from concept to creation, hold a fidelity to the creative impulse. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ... Collage (From the French, collé, to stick) is the assemblage of different forms creating a new whole. ...

Works

His most famous work is A Humument, which is usually described as a "treated Victorian novel". One day, Phillips went to a bookseller's with the express intention of buying a cheap book to use as the basis of an art project. He randomly purchased a novel called A Human Document by Victorian author William Hurrell Mallock, and began a long project of creating art from its pages. He paints, collages or draws over the pages, leaving some of the text peeking through in serpentine bubble shapes, creating a "found" text with its own story, different from the original. Characters from Mallock's novel appear in the new story, but the protagonist is a new character named "Bill Toge", whose surname can only appear on pages which originally contained words like "together" or "altogether". Toge's story is a meditation on unrequited love and the struggle to create and appreciate art. Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, Newspaper edition published in 1719 A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... William Hurrell Mallock (February 7, 1849-April 2, 1923) was an English author. ...

Several editions of A Humument have been published over the years, with more and more pages being revised each time. The project is ongoing, and future editions are expected.

Phillips has used the same technique (always with the Mallock source material) in many of his other works, including the illustration of his own translation of Dante's Inferno, (published in 1985). He is also fond of re-using images from postcards (which he avidly collects) as well as drawing stencil-style lettering, freehand. The melding of visual art with textual content is a hallmark of Phillips' work, and he is interested in testing and exploring this relationship. Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ... This article is about the year. ... For the computer diagnostic tool, see Postcard (computing). ...

He also paints portraits (his portrait of Dame Iris Murdoch is well known) and murals, and creates installation art and sculpture. He is a member of the Royal Academy (since 1989) and, in 2003, designed a Royal Mint commemorative five-pound coin for the 50th anniversary of the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. He is an opera fan, and has composed an opera, Irma, using the Humument source material for the libretto. He also wrote the libretto for Heart of Darkness, a 2005 chamber opera with music by Tarik O'Regan. Roman-Egyptian funeral portrait of a young boy A portrait is a painting, photograph, or other artistic representation of a person. ... Dame Iris Murdoch Jean Iris Murdoch DBE (July 15, 1919 – February 8, 1999) was an Anglo–Irish writer and philosopher, best known for her novels, which combine rich characterization and compelling plotlines, usually involving ethical or sexual themes. ... A mural by brightens the walls of this air-raid shelters in south London. ... Installation art is art that, through the use of sculptural materials and other media, seeks to modify the way we experience a particular space. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional, man-made object selected for special recognition as art. ... This article refers to an art institution in London. ... -1... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Royal Mint is the body permitted to manufacture, or mint, coins in the United Kingdom. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor), born 21 April 1926, is the Queen regnant of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tarik ORegan (born January 1st, 1978) is a British composer living in New York City, USA. Life Born in 1978 and educated at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Tarik ORegan now lives in Manhattan. ...

Phillips engages in other projects that challenge the viewer's perceptions of art; for instance, his ongoing project 20 Sites n Years, in which he photographs the same 20 spots in his studio's neighborhood, once a year. As the years go by, the viewer watches the neighborhood gradually change. Similarly, Phillips has done a series of paintings called Terminal Greys, consisting of simplistic cross-hatched bars of murky, grayish paint composed from the leftovers on his palette at the end of each work day. Since there are no aesthetic judgments on the artist's part in the creation of these works, they are virtually mechanical; the "art" could be said to lie in the conception of the work and not merely in the accidental "grey rainbow" appearance of the result.

He collaborated with film director Peter Greenaway on A TV Dante, a television miniseries adaptation of the first eight cantos of the Inferno. Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway (b. ... A miniseries, in a serial storytelling medium, is a production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ...

Phillips has provided cover art for music albums, including Starless and Bible Black by King Crimson (1974), Another Green World by Brian Eno (1975), and one of the sixteen portraits that form Peter Blake's design for Face Dances by The Who (1981). His cover art for Dark Star's Twenty Twenty Sound used the same technique as The Humument, but using the album's lyrics as the source material. Starless and Bible Black is an album released by the British progressive rock band King Crimson in 1974. ... The famous cover of King Crimsons debut album In the Court of the Crimson King (1969), painted by Barry Godber. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... Another Green World is an album by experimental musician Brian Eno, released in November of 1975 (see 1975 in music). ... Brian Eno in 1977 Brian Peter George St. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... There have been several notable individuals named Peter Blake. ... Face Dances is an album by British rock band The Who released in 1981. ... The Who is a British rock band of 1960s and 1970s fame. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dark Star (1999-2001) were a London-based band, whose music mixed dark psychedelica with a dub undertow and noisy effects-laden guitar. ...

He has also produced books about art, including Music In Art and a study of African art.

Life

Trevor Thomas Phillips was born May 24, 1937 in Clapham, London, the younger of two sons. His mother ran a ten-roomed boarding house and his father speculated in cotton futures. His family called him Tom. May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the village in Bedfordshire, see Clapham, Bedfordshire. ...

In 1940 the cotton market collapsed and the family had to sell their home. Tom's father went to work in Aberystwyth, leaving his wife to run a small boarding house in London. After the war the family finances improved and they were able to holiday annually in France and Germany. His parents began to buy short leasehold properties as investments and although these did not yield the return that they wished his mother did buy the freehold of one house, which would later become Tom's studio and home. 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Aberystwyth (from the Welsh Mouth of the Ystwyth) is a historic market town, administrative centre and seaport of Ceredigion (Cardiganshire), Mid Wales. ...

From 1942 to 1947 Tom attended Bonneville Road Primary School in Clapham. Whilst he was there he claims that he "learned the word artist and discovered that an artist is someone who does not have to put his paints away, so decided to become one". Although he enjoyed school he was noted his fascination with drawing and his refusal to conform. His mother recalled him buying a platform ticket every Sunday and taking long railway journeys when he was just eleven. In that year he progressed to Henry Thornton Grammar School, Clapham, where he developed his love of music, playing violin and bassoon in the school orchestra and singing solo baritone in school concerts and stage events. In 1954 he exhibited paintings for the first time, in an open art show on the railings of the Thames Embankment. A year later, at seventeen, he won a travelling scholarship to France, and lived there for three months. His mother remembers him returning to London with a sack of horse bones from the first World War, but more significantly he bought himself a piano and started to teach himself to play. In 1957 he became a founder member of the Philharmonia Chorus. This article is about the year. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Thames (pronounced /temz/) is a river flowing through southern England and connecting London with the sea. ... Embankment can be: An artificial slope which can be made out of earth, stones or bricks, or a combination of these. ... A grand piano A piano is a keyboard instrument, widely used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment, and also as a convenient aid to composing and rehearsal. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

From 1958 to 1960 Phillips read English Literature and Anglo Saxon at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He attended life drawing classes at the Ruskin School of Drawings and Fine Art, acted in plays and designed and illustrated the Isis magazine. Upon graduation he taught Art, Music and English at Aristotle Road School, Brixton, London. He also attended evening classes in life drawing (under Frank Auerbach), and sculpture at Camberwell School of Art, where he became a full-time student in 1961. When he graduated in 1964 his work was selected for that year's Young Contemporaries Exhibition in London and in the following year the AIA Galleries in London exhibited his first one-man show. While studying at Camberwell Phillips married Jill, and their daughter Ruth was born in 1964. Their second child was a son, Leo. 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The term English literature refers to literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American, Salman Rushdie is Indian. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... St Catherines College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... Figure drawing, also known as life drawing, is an exercise in drawing the human body in its various shapes and positions. ... Art (or the creative arts) commonly refers to the act and process of making material works (or artworks) which, from concept to creation, hold a fidelity to the creative impulse. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth. ... Frank Helmut Auerbach (born April 29, 1931) is a jewish painter. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional, man-made object selected for special recognition as art. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ...

Phillips became a teacher at Ipswich School of Art, where one of his students was Brian Eno, who would become a life-long friend. He soon moved to teaching Liberal Studies at Walthamstow Polytechnic where he met the pianist John Tilbury and participated in improvisation concerts at several polytechnics. His first musical composition was Four Pieces for John Tilbury. Brian Eno in 1977 Brian Peter George St. ... John Tilbury is a British pianist. ... The term polytechnic, from the Greek πολύ polú meaning many and τεχνικός tekhnikós meaning arts, is commonly used in many countries to describe an institution that delivers vocational or technical education and training, other countries do not use the term and use alternative terminology. ...

1966 was an important year for Phillips. He exhibited in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition for the first time, started work on A Humument, and began collaborating with Brian Eno. When Cornelius Cardew founded the Scratch Orchestra, its constitution was drafted in Phillips' garden in Bath (where he had become a teacher at the Academy of Art) and he participated in most of the concerts until he became disillusioned with its politicisation. In 1968 he moved to Wolverhampton to teach at Wolverhampton School of Art, and he had a second one-man exhibition, at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. He wrote the opera Irma in the following year and started the Terminal Grey series of paintings. 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... Royal Academy during the 2004 summer exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London. ... Cornelius Cardew (May 7, 1936–December 13, 1981) born in Winchcombe, Gloucester, was an English avant-garde composer, and founder (with Howard Skempton and Michael Parsons) of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. ... The Scratch Orchestra was an experimental musical ensemble founded in 1969 by Cornelius Cardew, Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton. ... Bath School of Art and Design is an art college in Bath, England. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Wolverhampton is an industrial, commercial and university city and metropolitan borough in the English West Midlands, traditionally part of the county of Staffordshire. ...

Throughout the 1970s his works were exhibited widely in one-man shows and collections. After a period as a visiting tutor at the Art School in Kassel, Germany he abandoned teaching and took his first trip to Africa. In 1973 he began the 20 Sites n Years photographic project. His first significant publication, Works/Texts I, was published in 1975 by Hansjörg Mayer and his first retrosepctive exhibition toured Europe. This was also the year that he met Marvin and Ruth Sackner, who were to become his patrons and founded an archive in Miami to house most of his work. The following year saw the completion of the privately printed edition of A Humument, which had been published in ten sections since 1971. Watershed of the river Weser Kassel (until 1926 officially Cassel) is a city situated along the Fulda River, one of the two sources of the Weser river, in northern Hesse in west-central Germany. ... This article is about the city in Florida. ...

In 1978 Brian Eno produced a recording of Irma directed by Gavin Bryars with a cast including Howard Skempton and Phillips himself. Phillips began contributing regular reviews to the Times Literary Supplement (now TLS). At the beginning of the 1980s he designed a series of tapestries for his old Oxford college and he returned to portraiture with a Portrait of Pella Erskine-Tulloch (the bookbinder who bound Phillips' favourite version of A Humument in three volumes). Erskine-Tulloch would become the subject of a series of weekly sittings which he described as "Pella on Sunday". He had moved out of the family home at 102 Grove Lane and moved back into his studio at 57 Talfourd Road in Peckham. A man with a great pleasure in habit, he would lunch every Tuesday in the Choumert Café on Choumert Road. His private limited edition of his own translation of Dante's Inferno illustrated with his prints was published in 1983 and in 1984 he was elected a Royal Academician. Peter Greenaway and Phillips co-directed A TV Dante with John Gielgud and Bob Peck, which was broadcast on Channel 4 Television in 1986. During this time he also collaborated with Malcolm Bradbury, Adrian Mitchell, Jake Auerbach, Richard Minsky and Heather McHugh. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bass player that can be related to experimental music, avant-garde, neoclassicism, and ambient. ... The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation. ... Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ... This article refers to an art institution in London. ... Peter Greenaway Peter Greenaway (b. ... John Gielgud as photographed in 1936 by Carl Van Vechten Sir Arthur John Gielgud OM CH (April 14, 1904–May 21, 2000) was an English theatre and film actor, regarded by many as one of the greatest of his time. ... Bob Peck (August 23, 1945 in Leeds, UK - April 4, 1999) was a British Stage, TV and Film actor, who came to acting later on in life. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury (September 7, 1932 – November 27, 2000) was a British author and academic. ... Adrian Mitchell (born 1932) is a British poet and dramatist. ...

At the beginning of the 1990s Phillips painted portraits of the Monty Python team and produced a glass screen and paintings for the Ivy Restaurant in London. He illustrated Plato's Symposium for the Folio Society (for whom he would illustrate Waiting for Godot in 1999), completed his Curriculum Vitae series of paintings and saw a new Works and Texts book published. In 1994 he went to Harvard as Artist in Residence at the Carpenter Center and published Merely Connect, which he had written with Salman Rushdie during a series of portrait sittings. With the move to a new studio in Bellenden Road and a change of ownership of the Choumert Café, Phillips began to lunch regularly opposite his studio at the Crossroads Café, where he could be found reading literary magazines through his blue-rimmed spectacles. The Monty Python troupe in 1970. ... Waiting for Godot (sometimes subtitled: tragicomedy in 2 acts) is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, written in the late 1940s and first published in 1952. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Salman Rushdie (born Ahmed Salman Rushdie Arabic: أحمد سلمان رشدی on June 19, 1947, in Bombay, India) is an Indian-born British essayist and author of fiction, most of which is set on the Indian subcontinent. ...

He curated the 1995 exhibition Africa: the Art of a Continent for the Royal Academy and became their Chairman of Exhibitions. Phillips began to move into new areas in the mid 1990s: stage design, The Postcard Century for Thames & Hudson (building on his passion for postcards), quilting, mud drawings and wire structures. All his old projects continued and he began illustrating Ulysses. He also translated the libretto of Otello while he was designing the English National Opera production. In 1998 Largo Records released Six of Hearts, a CD of Phillips' songs and other music written since 1992 but this went out of print when the label failed in 2002. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article refers to an art institution in London. ... Thames & Hudson (also Thames and Hudson and sometimes T&H for brevity) are a publisher, especially of art and illustrated books, founded in 1949 by Walter and Eva Neurath. ... The name Ulysses can mean: The Roman equivalent of Odysseus A 1922 novel by James Joyce: Ulysses (novel) A 1967 movie based on the novel, Ulysses (movie) A solar probe: Ulysses (spacecraft) A poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson A anime television program produced by DiC Entertainment: Ulysses 31 An indie... Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeares play Othello. ... The London Coliseum, home of the English National Opera English National Opera (ENO), located at the Coliseum Theatre on St. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

By the late 1990s Phillips was an establishment figure in most aspects of the arts. He became a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, an Honorary Fellow of the London Institute, an Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and a Trustee of the British Museum. He celebrated his fiftieth birthday by playing a game of cricket with many of his friends at the Kennington Oval cricket ground. In 1995, he married the writer Fiona Maddocks, Chief Opera Critic of the London Evening Standard. The word trustee is a legal term that refers to a holder of property on behalf of some other beneficiary. ... At least three art galleries are named National Portrait Gallery: National Portrait Gallery, Australia National Portrait Gallery, London National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Th University of the Arts London is a federal university and Europes largest and leading centre for education in art communication and design. ... For the insect, see Cricket (insect). ... For the shape, see oval The Oval is a cricket ground in Kennington, London. ...

In 2000 he designed lampposts, pavements, gates and arches for Southwark Council's Peckham Renewal Project. Antony Gormley, whose workshop adjoins Phillips' studio in Bellenden Road, Peckham, designed bollards for the same project and the work of both artists adorns that street. This article is about the year 2000. ... The Borough of Southwark(e) (pronounced ) is the area of London immediately south of London Bridge and part of the larger London Borough of Southwark. ... Angel of the North Antony Gormley (born 1950) is an English sculptor. ...

Phillips was made a Commander of the British Empire for services to the Arts in the 2002 Birthday Honours list. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions, in decreasing order of seniority: Knight or Dame Grand...

Selected bibliography

• A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel (1970, revised editions 1980, 1987, 1997, 2005)
• Dante's Inferno (illustrated translation, 1985)
• Works and Texts (1992)
• Africa: The Art of a Continent. Munich: Prestel, 1995. ISBN 3791316036 (hardback) 1999. ISBN 3791320041 (paperback)
• Aspects of Art: a Painter's Alphabet (1997)
• Music in Art (1997)
• The Postcard Century: 2000 Cards and Their Messages. London and New York: Thames & Hudson, 2000. ISBN 0-500-97594-9 (hardback). ISBN 0-500-97590-6 (paperback)
• We Are the People: Postcards from the Collection of Tom Phillips (2004)

External links

• Artist's official web site
• Official Humument web site
• Tom Phillips Gallery Website
• Tom Phillips Works from A Humument
• Tom Phillips Artist and Word
• Article about A Humument at ShortTermMemoryLoss.com