Born in Middlesex and trained at Kingston School of Art during World War Two, in 1946 Richmond joined David Bomberg’s classes at the Borough Polytechnic in south London. Prior to WWI, Bomberg had been one of the boldly original students to emerge from the Slade, and his legacy would arguably transform modern British painting.
With Dennis Creffield, Cliff Holden, Dorothy Mead and several other students who were deeply inspired by Bomberg’s teaching, Richmond formed the Borough Group. Of all Bomberg’s pupils, Richmond would become his most devoted, following him in 1954 to Ronda, Spain, where he would remain with his family for much of the next twenty-five years.
Returning to London in the early 1970s, Richmond painted one of his masterworks, The Red Studio, marking a definitive break from his debt to Bomberg, in favour of his own personal belief in the energies behind the material world, a philosophy inspired not only by Bomberg, but also by Nicola Spinoza, Bishop Berkeley, William Blake, Samuel Palmer, and Paul Cezanne, inter alia.
In the early 1980s, he moved to North Yorkshire, and concentrated on landscape. ‘I want to look at nature as nature is,’ he would later write, ‘and find out what we have in common. I find we share a field of forces, a vast electro-magnetic field of forces: a quantum chaos of unimaginable power.’
In 1992 Richmond painted an enormous panoramic mural to mark the centenary of the Borough Polytechnic (now South Bank University). Working from the roof of the building in all weathers, he studied the now rapidly changing cityscape, informed by his own memories of its past destruction, something he had experienced first-hand during the War as an air raid warden. When the mural was unveiled two years later, Richard Cork called it ‘a millennial tour de force.’
According to David Boyd Haycock, Richmond’s later works – particularly his watercolours are some of the most important and powerful by a British artist of the later twentieth century, and that he could sit alongside Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff as a modern British artist of considerable significance.
Self-portrait, 1942, ink on paper
Chronology
1922
Miles (Peter) Richmond, born 19th December, second son of George William and Grace Muriel. Miles father was an engineer employed by the British Admiralty and his mother trained as a classical singer.
1940-43
Studies drawing and painting at Kingston-upon-Thames School of Art. William Fairclough was Head of Drawing, Raymond Coxon Head of Painting.
1946
Moves to London and joins David Bomberg’s drawing and painting classes at The Borough Polytechnic (now London South Bank University), becoming a member of The Borough Group which held seven exhibitions between 1947-52.
1952
Moves with his wife Susanna to Aix-en-Provence.
1953
Moves to Spain joining Cliff Holden, Dorothy Mead, Dennis Creffield and other former Bomberg students at Torrox.
1954
Visits David Bomberg in Ronda and later joins him with Susanna and their baby daughter Georgina, born in Malaga in November. Miles becomes Bomberg’s assistant.
1957
Bomberg becomes ill and Miles takes him to hospital in Gibraltar. Bomberg dies two days after arriving in England.
1957-62
Continues working in Ronda.
1959
Birth of first son James in Ronda.
1960-70
Moves frequently between Spain and England. Two sons, Philip and Bob are born in England. Miles teaches at The International School in Spain with Harry and Elma Thubron and Alastair Boyd.
1970-79
Continues working between England and Spain, teaching in various colleges in England. Exhibitions include the Palacio Mondragon, Ronda, Spain and the Morley Gallery, London.
1979
Returns to England and helps promote and teach at a design school at Rounton, North Yorkshire with son-in-law David Seaton and Harry Thubron. Works mainly from the landscape of the north of England but making a number of painting trips to London, culminating in the mural painting at London South Bank University to celebrate the Millennium and in homage to David Bomberg.
1994
Moves to Middlesbrough with his second wife Miranda and their children, taking part with David Seaton in several Margins projects: creative encounters in remote places, north Scotland, Orkney and the Azores, exhibiting as a group at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London in 1996. Other exhibitions include the Middlesbrough Art Gallery and the Newlyn Art Gallery, Penzance.
2000
Exhibits large painting Teesside from Eston Bank at the Virtual Reality Centre,University of Teesside, Middlesbrough.
2000-2008
Working from both Middlesbrough and a studio in East Rounton continues to work from subjects around Teesside and North Yorkshire, especially the town of Richmond in Swaledale, Ripon Cathedral and Rievaulx Abbey Makes painting trips to Rome with his son Bob and also returns to work in Ronda culminating in major exhibitions in Spain at the Convento de Santo Domingo, Ronda, and the Galeria Italcable, Malaga in 2006 and 2008.
Exhibitions
With the Borough Group
1947, June, Borough Group, 1st exhibition, Archer Gallery, London, U.K.
1947, December, Borough Group, 2nd exhibition, Everyman Cinema, London, U.K.
1948, March, Borough Group, 3rd exhibition, The Bookworm Gallery, London, U.K.
1948, June, Borough Group, 4th exhibition, Archer Gallery, London, U.K.
1948, June, Borough Group, 5th exhibition, Embankment Open Air, London, U.K.
1949, March, Borough Group, 6th exhibition, Arcade Gallery, London, U.K.
1949, Summer, Borough Group, 7th exhibition, Brasenose College, Oxford, U.K.
Solo exhibitions
1974, Palacio Mondragon, Ronda, Spain.
1978, Morley Gallery, London, U.K.
1979, Warwick University Gallery, Warwick, U.K.
1989, Cleveland College of Art, Middlesbrough, U.K.
1992, Park Grosvenor Gallery, London, U.K.
1994-95, Middlesbrough Art Gallery and Newlyn Art Gallery, Middlesbrough, U.K.
1997, Two Views of Teesside [show with Miranda Richmond], Myles Meehan Gallery, Darlington, County Durham, U.K.
1998, A.I.M. Gallery, Middlesbrough, U.K.
1999, Execution of a millennium celebration painting, London from the South Bank, South Bank University, London, U.K.
2000, Execution of a large painting, Teesside from Eston Bank, Virtual Reality Centre, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, U.K.
2001, Early and Late, Bartley Drey Gallery, London, U.K.
2006 October-November, Miles Richmond y Ronda, Convento de Santo Domingo, Ronda, Spain
2008, Galeria Italcable, Malaga, Spain.
2008, Robin Katz Fine Art, Old Bond Street, London, U.K.
2008, Miles Richmond: Paintings and Works on Paper, Boundary Gallery, London, U.K.
2014, Miles Richmond (curated by Andréa Gates), Messum's, Cork Street, London, U.K.
2015, Miles Richmond (curated by Andréa Gates), Messum’s Cork Street, London, U.K.
Group exhibitions
1951, November-December, Four Contemporary Painters, Parsons Gallery, London, U.K.
1952, April-May, Fyra Engelsman/Four English Painters, Gummesons Konstgalleri, Stockholm, Sweden
1989, June, Spirit in the Mass (Bomberg and pupils), Fine Art Associates, Westbourne Grove, London, U.K.
1991, March-May, David Bomberg: some students and current influences, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, U.K.
1996, International Multi-media Symposium, Sociedade Nacional de Belas Artes de Lisboa, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, U.K.
1999, Land, Sea & Sky, Myles Meehan Gallery, Darlington, County Durham, U.K.
2001, August, Painting Matters: Five painters, The Crypt, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London, U.K.
2003, Imaginative Substance, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, London, U.K.
2004, November-December, Bomberg and Pupils: The Borough Group 1946-51, Boundary Gallery, London, U.K.
2007, Bomberg and Pupils, Pallant House, Chichester, U.K.
