William Coldstream Remembered: Portrait of a Painter

Bill Coldstream Remembered: Portraits of a Painter is a collection of essays and shorter reminiscent pieces reflecting on the life and legacy of William Coldstream (1908-1987) by a wide range of those who knew and learned from him, whether by direct contact or through his work. Coldstream, known as Bill to his friends, and The Prof to generations of students at The Slade where he was Professor of Fine Art from 1949-1975, was a founder member of the Euston Road School, a mover and shaker at the GPO Film Unit, where he worked closely with Britten and Auden in the 1930s, and later a major figure in the London art world as it went through controversial changes from the 1960s onwards. In this collection he is remembered as much for his hilarity, humanity, and gift for friendship as for the lasting mark he made on the cultural landscape of a world in flux. In a delightfully diverse selection of studies and characteristic snapshots Bill emerges as a complex figure, a man of warmth and wit, a painter of obsessive rigour, a raconteur, and a champion of the underdog. Contributors include former students, fellow painters, and historians of modern British Art. AUTHOR: Catherine Coldstream is a writer, musician, and former Carmelite nun with degrees from Oxford, UEA, and London, Goldsmiths. She is the author of poems, interlinked personal essays, and of Cloistered: My Years as a Nun (Chatto & Windus, 2024) an account of the twelve years she spent as a 'hermit in community'. She has taught theology and philosophy in schools, is associate editor of MONK arts magazine, and facilitates at Oxford Writing Mentors. She is in demand both as interviewer and speaker.