Quick Facts
Biography
Doug Binder (born 1941), lauded as "Britain's master of colour" and a contemporary of his fellow Bradfordian David Hockney, is an English artist whose work, although varying greatly over the course of his career, now inclines exclusively towards a study of the human form through the medium of oil paint. Along with Dudley Edwards and David Vaughan, he co-founded the design collective BEV in the 1960s.
Biography
Born in the English city of Bradford in 1941, Binder initially studied at the Bradford College of Art, before moving on to the Royal College of Art in 1961. Painting was his first love within all that the arts had to offer and it was in painting that he found he truly excelled.
He was heavily involved in the arts scene of London in the "Swinging Sixties" and was a regular guest at parties thrown by the glitterazzi of the day. Binder is often seen as the father of pop-psychedelic decor, with the rock group The Beatles being his most famous first customers. Paul McCartney commissioned him to paint his Knight piano. He was also involved with The Roundhouse, a famous London venue that was host to the biggest musical acts of the 1960s and 1970s.
With the changes within the field of fine art in the early-1970s, Binder found his work changing, influenced by the pop-culture of the time. In the latter half of the decade, he pursued a developing interest in sculpture.
His return to the North of England in the 1980s prompted a renewed interest in oil painting and representation, and for the last ten or fifteen years he has been solely focused upon this particular area.
Binder is currently the curator at the Dean Clough galleries in Halifax, West Riding, and is one of the site's in-situ artists. He is still an active contributor to the galleries but has so far been reluctant to sell any more than just a few of his works. In September 2007, Binder launched a much anticipated solo exhibition at York gallery/studio, The ArtSpace. The show, entitled "From the Life: New Paintings by Doug Binder", ran for three weeks. Binder returned to York in November 2010 when he brought his solo show "Full Circle" to the same space, renamed from ArtSpace to "According to McGee".[1]