Edward Piper (1938 – 1990) was the eldest son of the artist John Piper (1903 – 1992) and art critic, and opera librettist, Myfanwy Piper (née Evans). 1911 – 1997)
Educated at Lancing College he studied under Howard Hodgkin at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham and later at the Slade School of Art in London.
Piper moved to Somerset near Frome in 1965 with his then-biochemist wife Dr Prudence Piper (née Mackillop) and eldest son Luke. They raised a family and converted an Old industrial building to his studio home with a self-sufficient lifestyle filled with music and art.
Until gaining popularity with his painting Piper started out as a graphic artist and commercial photographer. His work is published in many volumes such as the Shell County Guide series, ‘Rings of Stone’ by Albury Burl, Mark Girouard’s country house and architectural books. He also undertook graphic design commissions to make a living. He continued with his photographic figure study and nude photographic techniques leaving an impressive photographic archive.
Greatly admiring the work of Matisse and Dufy in particular, his real passion, perhaps also to steer away from his father’s focus on landscape painting, was the female form (which interestingly John Piper took to in the late ‘60’s after seeing his son’s work) He later painted plein air landscapes, in Corsica, Malta, France, Italy and Spain as well as throughout Britain
Piper exhibited regularly during his lifetime and much of his work is in private collections. Examples of his lithographs and screenprints are to be found in the Tate Gallery collection. Since his premature death at the age of 51 his work has been rarely exhibited outside London galleries such as Beaux Arts, Catto, Messums Gallery and Christies Contemporary Art.
These three select paintings from 1979 are previously unexhibited works from his studio archive. Common to his prolific studio practice with figure painting all had been picked out by the artists as successful, to be pinned to the wall in the studio as studies to aid further work.
