Deanna Petherbridge CBE was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1939 and studied Fine Art at the University of Witwatersrand, SA. She immigrated to Britain in 1960 and, since the 1970s, her artistic practice focused on themes of war and conflict, with drawing as her primary medium. An advocate for the medium since the early 1990s, Petherbridge was Professor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art, London (RCA, 1995-2001) where she launched the Centre for Drawing Research, the first doctoral programme in drawing in the UK. She exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally, and her work is represented in many UK public collections.
Artist, academic, and curator, Deanna Petherbridge was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1939. She studied Fine Art at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, after which she spent a year teaching in the Art department. In 1960, having witnessed the injustice of the apartheid regime and the introduction of 'absolutely unacceptable political restrictions' (Studio International, 2017), she immigrated to Britain, settling in London. Unable to afford further study, she began teaching in a secondary school. While teaching, she started creating large-scale expressionist paintings focused on anti-Vietnam War themes and experimenting with soft, stuffed fabric sculptures. From the 1970s onwards, however, she turned to monochromatic pen and ink drawing as her primary medium, creating predominantly highly detailed, meticulously executed architectural drawings. In her drawings, architectural imagery functions as a symbol for human experiences, and intricate compositions are employed to illustrate the conflicting aspects of societal behaviours and historical cultures. Many of Petherbridge's drawings deal with subjects of war and conflict, partly reflecting her own upbringing in South Africa. Her triptych The Destruction of the City of Homs (2016, Tate Collection) exemplifies this approach. Made in response to the civil war in Syria, it depicts a crumbling urban landscape, the drawing's ‘multiple perspectives convey the dislocation and carnage of the conflict, the expanses of white untouched paper contrasting sharply with the surrounding detail of collapsed buildings and suggestive of the total destruction wreaked by the bombardments’ (Buxton, 2017). Although her practice was primarily drawing-based, she also produced large-scale murals — an example of which is located at Birmingham's International Convention Centre. Petherbridge also designed sets and costumes for the Royal Ballet (A Broken Set of Rules in 1984 and Bloodlines in 1990).
Petherbridge exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally. A solo exhibition, Petherbridge Alone with Soane (2008), was held at Sir John Soane's country house, Pitzhanger Manor, in Ealing, west London. It was complemented by a show curated by Petherbridge featuring the work of eight international artists, entitled Drawing as Vital Practice. She also curated an exhibition of drawings by four contemporary British women artists, Narratives of Arrival and Resolution: Abstract works on paper for Michael Richardson Contemporary Art, London (Art Space Gallery), and the exhibition, Witches and Wicked Bodies presented at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh in 2013. Her retrospective Deanna Petherbridge held at the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester (2016-2017), accompanied by the publication Deanna Petherbridge: Drawing and Dialogue (2016), included over 40 drawings, the five-panel Concrete Armada (1978) and The Destruction of the City of Homs (2016). Her 2017 exhibition Places of Change & Destruction, Drawings 2017, held at Art Space Gallery, centered on themes of devastation, mirroring the dark and anxious mood prevalent among many in the UK. It reflected on a world afflicted by terrible wars, distressed refugees, savage extremists, and populist tyrants, all tragically interconnected.
In addition to her art practice, Petherbridge promoted the importance of drawing from the early 1990s and held several major academic positions. She examined the technique of drawing within a trans-historical context and in relation to the contemporary art world in numerous journal articles, books, catalogues, exhibitions, public lectures, and conference papers. From 1995 to 2001, Petherbridge was Professor of Drawing at the Royal College of Art, London (RCA) where she launched the Centre for Drawing Research, the first doctoral programme in drawing in the UK. In 1996 she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to drawing and teaching and was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1998. In recognition of her contribution to drawing, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Design by Kingston University in 2001. From 2002 to 2006, she was Arnolfini Professor of Drawing at the University of the West of England. Her 2006 lecture series Drawing towards Enquiry at London’s National Gallery positioned drawing as a subversive practice. Petherbridge held a two-year Research Professorship at the University of Lincoln between 2007 and 2009. From 2009 to 2012, she was Visiting Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London (UAL). During this period, she authored a The Primacy of Drawing: Histories & Theories of Practice (2010), which examined the importance of drawing as a significant practice in Western art history, from the 15th century to its relevance for contemporary artists working with multiple practices. In 2019, she was appointed Associate Fellow at the Warburg Institute, University of London, and was Professor Emeritus at the University of the West of England.
Petherbridge lived and worked in Islington, London. Deanna Petherbridge died in London, England on 8 January 2024. Her works are held in many public collections in the UK, including the British Council Collection; British Museum; Government Art Collection; The Women’s Art Collection at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge; Tate, and the V&A.