ESTAMPA Madrid 2023

In this new edition of ESTAMPA 2023 art fair we present a solo project by the British artist Simon Quadrat, made up of drawings and canvases of different periods and sizes. Quadrat was born in London in 1946, the son of Jewish émigrés who separately fled Germany in the 1930s. During his school years he painted factories and desolate urban landscapes. Reading and visiting art galleries became part of his lifestyle; however, he has stated that at that time he “had no thought of becoming an artist.” Instead, he studied law at university and then embarked on a 30-year long career as a Barrister specialising in criminal cases.

In 2000 he gave up the Bar in order to become a full-time painter. He and his wife Jenny live in Wiltshire and his studio is a barn at the bottom of the garden. In his words, “My work is too subjective and I can’t isolate myself from it. The viewer will see my own themes and concerns, but with their imagination they will be able to understand the meaning of the works”. Artists from the 14th century to the present are acknowledged influences upon his work, in particular some of the Modern British and European painters from the immediate pre and post war period. Documentary films, archive photographs recording images and events of the 1950s and the period of his childhood in London, all supplement his memory, feed the imagination and metamorphose into his painting.