Stanley Kerr | British Figurative Painter

British Artist Stanley Kerr was trained in Drawing and Painting at Maidstone College of Art, where he studied with David Hockney, gradually moved through the world of fine art into the conceptual art scene and into commercial art, design and illustration. The last 15 years have been taken up with working as a Creative Director with a major international advertising agency while continuing his work in painting (which is now his full-time occupation) . He has participated in group shows both here and abroad where he has a number of works in private collections.

"Extraordinary in their psychological acuity, Stanley Kerr's portraits evince a skilful grasp of colour and texture. They disclose a fleeting truth that is as much technical intuition as emotional radar. Faces are taken from the side, obscured, in awkward postures, at times in traditional 3/4 profile, limned in subtle tonalities and with stark expressive power that calls on affinities as diverse as Renaissance portraiture and David Hockney, with whom Stanley Kerr studied. The compositions are precise and uncluttered, the figure or face against a background of some rich, modulated colour. There is an electricity to their classical poise, an aura of self-sufficiency as object vying with a personal force barely containable by paint. Frankly beautiful, unnervingly perceptive, Stanley Kerr's work is characterised by what he calls "Super-Realism, a concern with anonymity and the need for sensitivity to the optical surface of the canvas consistent with the enigmatic nature of the subject." Until recently Creative Director at an advertising agency, Stanley Kerr has garnered a number of prestigious awards for various brand campaigns. He has been active and visible as a painter on the international scene for many years now, and participated in the groundbreaking 1978 ICA Summer Exhibition with the Lisson Street Gallery Conceptual Art Group. His work is in many private collections all over the world, including MCA Records in New York, and foundations in Paris, Beirut and Cyprus". Britart Gallery

"Behind the Portrait" 2003 Article on portrait commissioning for Beach Magazines and Publishing - Junior Article - "Purchase with Passion" Counrty Homes, IPC Magazines 2003

- Source: www.stanleykerr.co.uk