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= David Hepher = David Hepher is a British artist born in Redhill, England in 1935. The son of an art-loving vicar, Hepher regards himself as a landscape painter, although his landscapes are mostly confined in subject to the urban environment of his home country, England. He is best known

for his paintings of buildings, and tower blocks, including the Aylesbury Estate: which 'is to Hepher what the Stour valley was to Constable or the Medway to Turner'.

Early Life
Hepher's childhood was marked by a period of sickness from age six to nine, when he contracted tuberculosis. At age 13, Hepher attended Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland. Following his time in Scotland, the British artist undertook national service in Germany and then the Middle East from 1953 to 1955. Hepher then attended Camberwell School of Art in 1955, and the Slade School of Fine Art in 1958.

It would be 10 years after leaving the Slade School of Art in 1961 that Hepher would first show his work in public.

Hepher has dealt with the same subject across his forty year career - the high-rises of South London. These tower blocks are 'visible manifestations of the Welfare State'. Although Hepher's work touches on many art movements including modernism and documentary realism, 'he is not a painter who fits comfortably into any sort of grouping'.

Career
Upon leaving the Slade School of Art. Hepher continued to feel like he wasn’t prepared to show his work. He refers to himself as a 'late developer' and 'out of step with [his] own contemporary generation'. When he was 33 years old, Hepher stopped painting for 18 months. Following this break from painting, in which the artist experimented with differing media and took time to 'find his own gesture', he returned to painting with the aim of portraying a subject matter in which 'everybody could relate to, and would understand, but without too much baggage'. He began to paint the neutral and indiscriminate Edwardian terraces of London. Hepher's works of Edwardian terraces garnered attention from the Serpentine Gallery. He exhibited in a show at the Gallery that was organised by the Arts Council. It received critical praise. Following this exhibition, Hepher was invited to put on a solo show at the Flowers Gallery in 1972. His first two exhibitions with Flowers achieved commercial success; every work in the shows sold.

Stockwell Flats was painted in 1974, taking several months to make. The fact he was producing work depicting social housing fed into the perception that his work had an ardent social commentary. However, Hepher has distanced himself from addressing the strong conceptual aspect of his work that spawns from his subject matter.

Throughout the 1980s, Hepher took influence from the plates and etchings of Piranesi, and combined the style with his own iconic depictions of tower blocks. He returned however, to depicting high-rises towards the end of the decade, and this culminated in his production of the arguably definitive work of his career - A Triptych for Mark (1991-1992). Hepher incorporated the deterioration and decay of the residential housing blocks that was beginning to take hold tin these areas by including concrete and mixed media components to emphasize physicality in the piece. He also depicted graffiti art sprawled over his paintings - some of which were logos of the British far right party, the National Front.

Towards the end of the nineties Hepher began to incorporate large-scale photography into his paintings.

Teaching
Hepher has spent a large part of his career teaching; he has been an art tutor at Camberwell College of Art, Central St Martins, Wimbledon College of Art, Kingston University, Chelsea College of Arts, and the Slade College of Fine Art. He says that teaching has enriched his work, kept him informed, kept him up to date, and has kept him young. (pg 71)