Artist Biography & Facts

Roderic Westwood Barrett

"Roderic Barrett: Humanity's slender hopes shine through his formal paintings," obituary, The Guardian newspaper, November 30, 2000, by Thomas Puttfarken

Roderic Barrett, who has died aged 80, was a painter of great emotional, as well as formal, power, of rich symbolic suggestiveness and, above all, of deep humanity.

He was born into a radical, non-conformist family; his father, a conscientous objector, had been jailed during the first world war. The death of his mother, when Roderic was only 10, almost certainly contributed to his later melancholic predisposition.

His talent for drawing was recognized at St Christopher's school, Letchworth, along with his keen sportsmanship, and when he was 15, his father took him for interview at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Although formally too young to be considered, Barrett was accepted on the strength of his portfolio. He studied there until 1940, in particular wood engraving under John Farleigh, who considered him the best engraver he had seen.
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During the second world war, Roderic was also a conscientious objector, although unlike his father, he was exempted from active service. After the war, with his wife, Lorna Blackmore, whom he had married in 1943, he set up home outside Colchester, and supported his family with teaching appointments in London, first as a part-time instructor at the Central School (1947-68), then as tutor at the Royal Academy Schools at Burlington House (1968-96).

From early on, he was involved with the Colchester Arts Society, along with John and Paul Nash. In 1982, he succeeded Cedric Morris as its president, a position he held until his death with dedication and pride.

Fundamentally resistant to, and suspicious of, the "isms" of modern and post-modern art since the 1960s, Roderic pursued his own way. Having changed from engravings to oils, he retained the mastery and precision of drawing associated with the former. His large-scale painting, often "six-footers" like traditional history pieces, are dominated by human figures of a generic nature - children, the old, the oppressed, the naked, clowns, but also oppressors, hypocrites and charlatans.

Seemingly normal objects, such as chairs, tables, buckets and candles, take on symbolic meanings, suggestions of myths, the subconscious, or of nightmares. What shines through the appearance of a domestic scene are the fears and anxieties, the slender hopes and the melancholia of the human condition.

Roderic would never talk about the "meaning" of his works, only about their formal composition. That was of paramount importance, yet the formality clearly helped to give structure to, and make bearable, a deeply disturbing view of mankind.

Roderic was an outspoken defender of what he called "authentic" art; he was not concerned with the shock of the new, but with getting it right. In this sense, too, he was a deeply moral artist, to whom consistency, hard work and honesty were important.

His honesty made him a perceptive, and sometimes sharp, critic of his own work, as well as of that of others. Given half a chance, he would rework earlier compositions, sometimes several times. Despite occasional battles with depression, he was a man of great charm and grace, a warm friend, and a living encouragement to others.

Since showing at the Beaux Arts gallery, London, in 1954, he exhibited regularly, culminating in a show at the European parliament gallery, Strasbourg (1995), a retrospective at the Barbican and firstsite, Colchester (1996), and an 80th-birthday celebration at Chappel galleries, near Colchester, earlier this year. From 1993-98, he was a trustee of the Colchester and District Visual Arts Trust; and, in 1997, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex.

He is survived by his wife and three children, Jonathan, Kristin and Mark.

Roderic Westwood Barrett, artist, born January 8 1920; died November 17 2000