Caulfield, Patrick : Paintings, 1963-1992

This Art and Design Profile draws on the 1992 retrospective exhibition "Patrick Caulfield Painting 1963-1992" at London's Serpentine Gallery. With his highly-stylized renditions of familiar pub, restaurant and domestic scenes, Caulfield dignifies the ordinary, prosaic and unheroic side of urban life; normal banal views, or plain household objects are transformed into something magical by rich, lush colours and unexpected juxtapositions. Caulfield trained at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s and his work with its flat graphic treatment of images, sense of humour and interest in mass taste and kitsch shares fundamental features with Pop Art.

He is perhaps unique in being equally admired by representational and abstract artists, by traditionalists and conceptualists. The authoritative essay by Marco Livingstone, full colour reproductions over over 80 of his best known works, together with biographical details and a comprehensive bibliography make this volume an invaluable record of his work. Also included in this volume are special features on Zoe Zenghelis's architecturally-inspired paintings with an essay by Marina Vaizey, and on the Italian painter William Stock.