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Simon Barber: Homework 

Seminar Gallery

Simon Barber: Homework

Feb 4th to May 6th 2012

An education that took in York, Liverpool and the Royal Academy earned Simon Barber a string of early sales – but not enough income to avoid an ad hoc career in commercial illustration: “I could mimic anything with a brush or a spray gun,” says the 60 year-old, now in a college-based “pre-retirement job”. But when he wasn’t painting 20ft Marlboro cowboys on Lebanese buildings, Simon would slip into his chair of an evening and draw from memory, in his lap, on whatever card was to hand. He still does. “I never plan anything. The drawings propose themselves: they are as random as dreams”.  The loose presentation and the influence of Frans Masereel (1889-1972) give these ‘commissions from the self-within’ a compelling charm and panache.