In 1985, Creffield was commissioned by the Arts Council to draw every cathedral in England, a task undertaken by living in a camper van for two years. This resulted in the exhibition 'English Cathedrals' at the Hayward Gallery, London, which subsequently toured Britain (1988–1990),[4] and a related book written by Creffield.[5] Six of these drawings, including 'Peterborough: Approaching the West Front' and several views of Canterbury Cathedral were acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1990. A very positive review by the distinguished writer on art, Peter Fuller, of a touring exhibition of Creffield's drawings of English cathedrals appeared in the first issue of the journal, Modern Painters (then edited by Fuller, its founder), together with an essay by Roy Oxlade on their teacher, David Bomberg.
After the cathedrals of England, further series of drawings were commissioned, including the cathedrals of northern France, shown at the Albemarle Gallery in London in 1991. In 2005, Flowers Gallery, London, staged a major retrospective exhibition and published a catalogue including a foreword by novelist Howard Jacobson and a conversation between Dennis & Professor Lynda Morris.[6] Creffield's importance as a contemporary draughtsman was also recognised in 2008 when he was included in the exhibition 'Drawn from the Collection, 400 Years of British Drawing' at Tate Britain. In 2011 he staged a major exhibition entitled ‘Jerusalem’ at James Hyman Gallery, inspired by the city and by William Blake's great poem. A great critical and commercial success, Creffield considered the show to be the climax of his career
Looking into Paintings – Dennis Creffield, 'Narrative' episode of the Malachite TV series. Dir. Norbert Lynton, Channel 4, 1985.[8]
The Invisible Recorder – Dennis Creffield's East Anglian Cathedrals. Dir. Charles Mapleston, Anglia Television, 1989.[9]
Summer Painting. Dennis Creffield at Salisbury Cathedral. Dir. Carolyn Djanogly, Meridian Films, 1996.
Selected bibliographyedit
Fyra engelsmän/Four English Painters, exh. cat., with text by Torsten Renqvist, Gummesons konstgalleri, Stockholm, 1952
Spalding, F. & Collins, J., Dictionary of British Art, Volume 6: 20th Century Painters and Sculptors, Antique Collectors’ Club Ltd., London, 1977
Kate Aspinall, ‘Artist Versus Teacher: The Problem of David Bomberg's Pedagogical Legacy’, Tate Papers, no. 33, 2020, accessed 18 December 2020.
Richard Cork, David Bomberg, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1987
English Cathedrals: Drawings by Dennis Creffield, exh. cat., with foreword by R.B. Kitaj and texts by Dennis Creffield, South Bank Centre Publications, London, 1987
David Beckham, Artists in Britain Since 1945, Art Dictionaries, Ltd., London, 1988
Midsummer Night's Dream: Drawings and Paintings by Dennis Creffield, exh. cat., with foreword by Philip Dodd. Goldmark, 1989
"Portrait of the Artist /Interview with Dennis Creffield/", The Artist's & Illustrator's Magazine, Issue 42, March 1990
Dan Hofstadt, "Dungeon Masters... ", The New Yorker, 12 November 1990
French Cathedrals: Drawings by Dennis Creffield, exh. cat., with foreword by Richard Cork, Albemarle Gallery, London, 1991
Peter Fuller, Modern Painters: Reflections on British Art, (edited by John McDonald), Methuen, London, 1993
Robert Snell, "Faces in the slighted sediment", The Times Literary Supplement, 19 July 2002[10]
Impressions of Castles, Drawings of Welsh and English Castles, exh. cat., with introductory essay by Peter Wakelin & poem by Regina Derieva. Globegallery, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford, 2002
Philip Vann, Face to Face: British Self-Portraits in the Twentieth Century. Sansom & Company, 2004
Dennis Creffield: a retrospective, exh. cat., with foreword by Howard Jacobson and interview by Lynda Morris, Flowers East, London, 2005
John Russell Taylor. "Back to the drawing board", The Times, 23 March 2005[11]
Dennis Creffield. Jerusalem, exh. cat., James Hyman Fine Art, London, 2011
Andrew Lambirth, ‘England's most closely guarded secret’, The Spectator, 24 September 2011[12]
Neil Roberts, A Lucid Dreamer: The Life of Peter Redgrove, Random House, 2012
Marina Vaizey, Figure to Ground: Five Figurative Artists: Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, Dennis Creffield, John Virtue, Celia Paul, Cv Publications, 2012
"Dennis Creffield", Wall Street International magazine, 21 February 2014[13]
Philip Dodd, "Tribute paid to Dennis Creffield", Antiques Trade Gazette, Issue 2350, 14 July 2018[14]
Rafael Pic, "Dennis Creffield, le peintre des cathédrales", Le Quotidien de l'Art, Édition N°1539, 16 July 2018[15]
Referencesedit
^"A Lasting Legacy" (PDF). Connected. 6. London South Bank University: 11–13. Spring 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2011.
^David Buckman, Artists in Britain Since 1945 (London: Art Dictionaries Ltd., 1998) 350
^Hilary Diaper, 'The Gregory Fellowships', in Benedict Read (ed.), Herbert Read: A British Vision of World Art, (London: Lund Humphries 1993) 134
^R. Adam, 'Drawing lessons: English cathedrals drawn by Dennis Creffield', in The Architects' Journal, Vol. 12, 1988, 81
^Dennis Creffield, English Cathedrals (London: South Bank Centre, 1987)
^"Dennis Creffield Biography – James Hyman: Fine Art and Photographs".