English artist
Walter Kershaw (born 7 December 1940) is an English artist in oils and watercolours who is best known for his large scale, external, mural paintings in Northern England and the Americas.
Biography.
Kershaw is the only son of Florence Kershaw (née Ward) (1916–2010), a retired school caterer; and Walter Kershaw (1917–1998), who served in the Royal Air Force (1936–1946) at Duxford, achieving the rank of Flight Sergeant. He has two younger sisters. Kershaw attended De La Salle College, Salford from 1951 to 1958; and was later a student under the tutelage of Victor Pasmore, Richard Hamilton and Lawrence Gowing at King's College, Durham University (now part of Newcastle University) from 1958 to 1962, graduating with a BA Honours in Fine Art. Kershaw has been twice married and divorced but now is the father of twins (one son and one daughter) with Gillian Halliwell.
After graduating Kershaw taught at Bury Arts and Crafts Centre but has always primarily been self-employed and continued to work from his studio in Littleborough until his incarceration in 2021. His early large external murals painted on slum properties alongside his provocative public sculptures attracted much media attention throughout the '70s and early '80s. He was featured in interviews with Melvyn Bragg,  Anna Ford (for Granada TV); Sue MacGregor (on BBC Radio 4); as a guest of Janet Street-Porter (on London Weekend Television); and also alongside Eric Morecambe on Russell Harty's BBC Two chat show.
George Best was a good friend of Kershaw's and purchased six large drawings and oil paintings from the artist. He also found support in Bob Monkhouse who not only purchased his paintings but also corresponded with him and promoted Kershaw's work on his BBC Radio 2 show.
Ian Potts of the BBC, then a student at the Polytechnic of Central London made a film about Kershaw's work called "The First Graffiti Artist". It went on to win the best student film award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Kershaw's work can be found in public collections worldwide including Bury Art Museum, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Arts Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the National Collection of Brazilian Art in São Paulo.
Controversies and incarceration.
In March 2013, Kershaw at the age of 72, pleaded guilty to assaulting an acquaintance the previous year and was fined and given a 12-month conditional discharge.
Kershaw was also the subject of two year restraining order in December 2013. Since 2009 he had received a number of warnings from the police for harassment of Catherine Mitchell, a former life model, with whom he had a brief relationship in 2006.
In 2015 after repeated warnings, Kershaw was banned for life from contacting Miss Mitchell under the terms of another restraining order, but he continued to accost Miss Mitchell in the years that followed, and appeared before the courts repeatedly for breaching the order. In 2021 he was finally imprisoned for a term of four years.
Selected exhibitions and critical reception.
Major group and solo shows include Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford (1962); Salford Art Gallery (1969); House of Commons (1972); and "Lancashire South of the Sands", which toured from the County and Regimental Museum, Preston (1988)
1964: Avgarde Gallery, Manchester. First solo show. Review by Robert Waterhouse in "The Guardian"
1969: Salford Art Gallery. Review by Merete Bates in "The Guardian"
1971: North-West Gallery Art Service (touring). Review by Merete Bates in "The Guardian"
1972: Salford Art Gallery. Review by Merete Bates in "The Guardian"
1990: Salford Art Gallery. "From Rochdale to Rio". Review by Robert Clark in "The Guardian"
Selected works.
Paintings.
Kershaw has travelled extensively and his work (drawings, watercolours, oil paintings and some photos) can be put into series; for example:
Other works include:
Murals.
Murals and street art are the medium Kershaw is best known for. Many were painted onto gable-ends of Victorian terraces in the Greater Manchester region and almost all of the early examples have now been demolished or lost through redevelopment. Kershaw always accepted the ephemeral nature of these pieces and often deliberately selected condemned properties as the canvas of his choice. In addition to the giant murals he also painted a number of neglected bridges in the Burnley, Bury and Rochdale areas which led to cease and desist type letters from the local authorities who were more concerned with ongoing costs to maintain such bold colour schemes as opposed to the aesthetic. Kershaw often painted these very early on Sunday mornings when few witnesses were around and these are now considered an early example of guerrilla art.
Sculpture.
In 1970 Kershaw was commissioned to design both the front and rear doors for a new Roman Catholic church in Longsight, Manchester. Cast in aluminium, they depicted the creation of the Universe and the Apocalypse. The doors were complemented by a stained glass window by fellow Rochdale artist Chris Burnett. Located at the intersection of Hamilton Road and Montgomery Road, the church of Saint Robert of Newminster was demolished in 2004.
Other pieces include:
References.
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