Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1947 Castries, Saint Lucia

Year of Migration to the UK: 1960

Biography

Painter Winston Branch was born in Castries, St Lucia, in 1947. He displayed an early artistic talent and as a child he painted and drew constantly. He was sent to London by his parents in 1959 for better schooling opportunities. After seeing the work of Cuban painter, Wifredo Lam and Chilean abstract expressionist, Roberto Matta, who both inspired him because ‘they came from my part of the world’, Branch decided to pursue a career in the arts (Popovic 1995). He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London under Frank Auerbach, Euan Uglow and Michael Andrews (1967–70). This experience represented a turning point in his life: he spent his time studying art, visiting the Wallace Collection, Courtauld Institute and British Museum, looking at paintings of all genres in order to find his personal voice. Branch became a member of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) (1966–72) and held his first solo show at the Arts Lab Gallery, London in 1967 when he was still a student; in 1969 he showed with The London Group. By the time he graduated, he had had exhibitions in Algeria, the USA and France. He was awarded the Prix de Rome (1971), a British Council Award (1973) and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1978). He also received a prestigious DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship to Berlin in 1976, which culminated in one of Branch’s most substantial catalogues (Chambers 2014, p. 78). Further recognition came in 1979, when the Arts Council of Great Britain purchased one of Branch’s paintings, First Light 'For Polly', for its collection.

The painting Yellow Sky (1970, UCL Art Museum) exemplifies the style of his early work. Unusual and intriguing, it combines both figurative and abstract elements. At first glance, the viewer may be uncertain whether the forms represent the Caribbean mountains, ravine, and bright sunlit sky or a rotund figure reclining against a yellow background. Branch effectively used this visual ambiguity to symbolise how one's sense of self is often tied to a sense of place and community. After a brief period of portraiture, Branch abandoned figuration and quickly shifted his focus towards abstraction in 1982, characterised by the series Zachary II (1982–84, Tate). In the same year the British Black Arts Movement was founded to address issues of racism, sexism, and legacies of colonialism. Primarily interested in formalism, Branch was thus excluded from many seminal exhibitions of the time, although his work featured in Caribbean Artists in England at the Commonwealth Institute, London (1971) and later in Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1996 at the Caribbean Cultural Centre, New York (1997–98). He persevered in his exploration of abstraction, creating a distinctive body of work characterised by a dynamic use of colour and richly textured surfaces.

According to Eddie Chambers, Branch, as a Black artist, followed in the footsteps of Guyanese émigré painters, Frank Bowling and Aubrey Williams, in that he ‘confounded and frustrated stereotypes of what work a ‘Black artist’ should be producing or might be expected to produce’ (Chambers, p. 20). Branch believed that Black people were not stereotypes, and that the structure of racism imposed this view upon them. This limited their vision and made it difficult to see possibilities, thereby forcing them to accept what was given, ultimately killing their imagination. He clarified that he chose to become a painter, not to protest, but because he was a man who ‘lives in the world’ (TateEtc). For Branch, Black art is not just about Black images, since even famous painters like Delacroix, Rembrandt, and Turner have painted such images. He said that ‘A painter seizes on ideas and paints them. And ideas are disseminated, first and foremost, to illuminate the imagination. To light it up. I’m not angry; I’m expressing dissent. The right to a different opinion’ (Tate Etc).

Branch's abstract paintings are renowned for their emotionally charged surfaces, which are achieved through a dynamic interplay of vibrant colours that create a complex and intricate web of rich pigments. Art critic Carlos Diaz Sosa described his paintings as ‘abstract canvasses in cool, cloudy colours that have a quality which allow the viewer to explore the depths of the mind. Branch also uses paint like a symbol, a purely aesthetic language, an illustration of spirit’ (Popovic 1995, p. 83). Branch has exhibited in over 25 solo shows, and over 75 groups shows. He was a visiting tutor at the Slade School of Art, Chelsea College of Arts, and Kingston School of Art (1973–92), among other institutions. He received a Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Greenwich, London in 2020. His work is represented in many UK public collections, including the Arts Council, Tate, British Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum. In March 2023 he recorded his 'Artist's Confession' for the Chelsea Arts Club archives.

Related books

Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art: a History from 1950 to the Present (London: I.B. Tauris & Co, 2014)
Wendy Martin, ‘A Matter of Survival—a Portrait of Winston Branch’, Women's Studies, Volume 28, 1999, pp. 281-290
Caroline Popovic, ‘The Precarious Life of Art’, BWIA Caribbean Beat, No. 16, November/December 1995, p. 83
David Simolke, ‘Winston Branch: A Study in Contrast’, Black Art: an International Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 2, Winter 1978, pp. 4–8
Eddie Chambers, Black Artists in British Art: a History from 1950 to the Present (London: I.B. Tauris & Co, 2014)
The Recent Paintings of Winston Branch (Nashville: Fisk University, 1973)

Public collections

Related organisations

British Council (award recipient)
Caribbean Artists Movement (member)
Chelsea School of Art (visiting tutor)
Hornsey College of Art (visiting tutor)
Goldsmiths' College, London (currently Goldsmiths, University of London) (visiting tutor)
Kingston School of Art (visiting tutor)
Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievement Award (recipient)
Prix de Rome (recipient)
Slade School of Fine Art (student and visiting tutor)
University of California, Berkeley (teacher)
University of Greenwich (Honorary Doctor of Arts )
The London Group (exhibitor)

Selected exhibitions

Fragments of Light, Cedric Bardawil Gallery, London (2023)
Group show, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (2022)
About Face, Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, The Lowry and Rugby Collection, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (2018)
30th London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London (2018)
Maxes, group show, Bankside Gallery, London (2017)
No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990, Guildhall Art Gallery, London (2015–16)
Winston Branch, Clink Wharf Gallery, London (1997)
Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966–1996, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1997)
Africa95, Prints and Photographs by Artists of African Descent, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (1995)
Artist’s Open Studio, Whitfield Place, London (1985)
Winston Branch, Joanna Lonsdale, London (1984)
Solo exhibition, Lady Marabelle Kelly, Carlyle Square, London (1983)
British Artists in Berlin, Goethe Institute, London (1981)
British School in Rome, South London Art Gallery, London (1980)
Caribbean Artists in England, Commonwealth Institute, London (1971)
Winston Branch with Felix Topolski, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London (1969)
Young Artists from the Commonwealth, Royal Commonwealth Society, London (1969)
London Group, Royal Institute Galleries, London (1969)
Winston Branch Paintings & Drawings, Arts Lab, Drury Lane, London (1967)
Group show, Whitechapel Library, London (1966)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Winston Branch]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Winston Branch artist