Patrick Caulfield

Patrick Caulfield (1936–2005) was a British painter and printmaker associated with the emergence of Pop‑inflected abstraction in the 1960s. Though often linked to the Pop Art movement, Caulfield charted a distinct path rooted in the interplay between flatness, line, and the semiotics of representation. Educated at the Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art—with contemporaries including David Hockney—he developed a signature style characterized by crisp black outlines, saturated fields of color, and a stylized reduction of form.

Caulfield’s early exhibitions at the Robert Fraser Gallery and later at Waddington Galleries positioned him as a leading figure in British postwar art. Works such as *After Lunch* (1975) and *Still‑Life with Dagger* (1963) exemplify his capacity to blend the everyday with art‑historical references, often incorporating trompe‑l’oeil passages that destabilize distinctions between high and low visual languages. His graphic sensibility also made him a prolific printmaker, with screenprints that parallel his painted works in clarity and wit.

Retrospectives at Tate Britain (1999) and the Hayward Gallery (2013) underscored his enduring relevance. His works are held in the Tate, the British Council Collection, and numerous international museums. Influenced by Léger, Matisse, and commercial signage, Caulfield developed a visual language that is both celebratory and critical of modernity’s sleek surfaces. His carefully orchestrated compositions invite viewers into spaces of quiet contemplation, where the tension between illusion and flatness becomes a site of subtle narrative drama.