Billy Childish: A Life of Freedom
by Laura Heyrman
Billy Childish (English, b. 1959) is a painter.
“I paint every Monday. That’s the only time I’m a painter. The rest of the time I’m something else.”
When he’s being something else, he might be an author or a photographer, a poet or a singer, a filmmaker or a guitarist. Childish (birth name Steven John Hamper) has been an active creator in these realms since the 1970s. As a musician in diverse genres and with several bands, he has released more than one hundred albums. His literary pursuits include fanzines, collections of poetry, and novels. In the visual arts, Childish is often identified as a cofounder, in 1999, of the Stuckism movement, which advocated figural art and opposed conceptual and postmodern art. Originally a small group of British artists, Stuckism has expanded internationally, with 236 groups in 52 countries. Since about 2001, however, Childish has distanced himself from the group.
Though more involved in writing and music earlier in his life, Childish was always drawing and painting. Indeed, his early drawings, made while working as an apprentice stonemason, led to his being offered places at art schools in the late 1970s. However, his extremely independent nature and self-belief weren’t well-suited to the academic environment. The artist’s distinctive approach to line, shape, and color developed over decades of artistic practice.
“I don’t admire or envy anybody’s success. … I’ve had a little success. I’d say I’m at the bottom of the top end. Before that I was nowhere. But all success means is we live in a nice house and have nicer dinner.”
Childish often notes that he had an “overnight success” as a painter when he was 50 years old. Though he began exhibiting regularly in the 1980s, it was some 20 years before his work attracted widespread attention in the art world.
“I belong to a tradition of creativity. I believe in individual creativity being the heart and soul of mankind. I don’t want to be anything and so I live a wonderful life of freedom.”
The artist is insistent on his independence from commissions and restrictions of any kind on his creative voice. Childish’s works are expressionistic in style and one can see the influence of artists he admires, like Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch. Like those artists, Childish filters experiences, people, and landscapes from his life through his imaginative, emotional vision.
(all quotations drawn from published interviews with the artist)
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