Andrew Yates

Small Bal Masque (1981), 1, 4 and 5

These gouache paintings, which form part of a suite from the early 1980s, echo the abstraction so evident in the CNAA collection. Visually, they suggest the complex layering of the paintings of Bernard Cohen; further, when Yates wrote of “an interest in the creative possibilities of self-imposed rules, generative algorithms, the selective application of random behaviour or chance, and similar image-building strategies and methods” there is a clear association with the ideas of the late Kenneth Martin.

Small Bal Masque 1

Small Bal Masque 4

Small Bal Masque 5

Nationality

British

Education

1964-68: Hornsey School of Art

Taught

1997-2002: retired as Dean of Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design
1985: taught at York University, Toronto, Canada
1973: taught at University of Washington, Seattle, USA

Background

After graduating from Hornsey School of Art in 1968 Yates mounted four one-person exhibitions (three in Britain and one in the USA), participating also in group shows in Britain & France. His public commissions were large, site-specific abstract paintings, created for architectural contexts, in situ at Brunel and Manchester Universities.

Yates is represented in public and private collections in the UK, Europe, and the USA.

The artist

In 2002 Andrew Yates gave up his academic post, which this freed him to re-engage with studio practice. Moving from London to St Leonards-on-sea, on the East Sussex coast he painted in oils and acylics on canvas and wood supports, but also used photography and computer graphics, which became an increasingly important studio tool. Computer drawing software, used employed for image-origination and idea-visualisation processes, was an essential tool for the post-processing and manipulation of digital photographic images.

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