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Martin BradleyUntitled (Double Happiness), 1965 - Oil Painting on Wood with Chinese characters1965, circa
1965, circa
About the Item
Martin Bradley 1931-2023
Untitled (Double Happiness), 1965 circa
oil on wood
diameter, 182.9 cm (72 in)
signed
Martin Bradley is a 20th-century painter.
Born in London in 1931, from childhood Bradley was intent on becoming an artist. As his guardian was against the idea, Bradley ran away to sea when he was fourteen. Whilst working in Central and South American he began painting portrait images of his shipmates before returning to London three years later. Back in London Bradley studied oriental languages, literature and art and developed a life long fascination with the art and calligraphy of China and Japan.
Bradley soon became acquainted with the unconventional circle of artists and writers known as the 'Angry Young Men' and was known as the 'Rimbaud of Soho' due to his hard-drinking lifestyle. Galleries such as Gimpel Fils and the Redfern Gallery began to exhibit his work and in 1956 he joined Gallery One. British collectors such as Sir Roland Penrose, Sir Herbert Read and Dame Barbara Hepworth acquired works by Bradley, and when he went to Paris in the late 1950s he was taken up by Rudolphe Augustinci, director of the Galerie Rive Gauche, who was notable for showing artists such as Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy and Rene Magritte. Augustinci promoted Bradley's work in Europe; and in London, Victor Musgrave continued to exhibit Bradley's paintings at Gallery One. Bradley's work from the 1950s and 1960s is primarily abstract, with strong calligraphic and symbolic influences.
Bradley lived for some years between Ibiza and Paris, and spent much of 1958 in Brazil on a scholarship. In 1961, after a personal crisis, Bradley served briefly in the Spanish Foreign Legion, before deserting and returning to London. In the later 1960s and early 1970s, Bradley travelled extensively in Asia and cultivated his gift as a linguist: Bradley is able to speak more than ten languages including Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan and Hindi. He became a convert to Nichiren Shôshû Buddhism 'which changed the whole foundation of my thinking', and has lived in Italy, France and England. Since 1954, Bradley has had more than 130 solo exhibitions and his work has been collected world-wide. He has lived in Belgium with his Japanese wife, Tatsuko, since 1989. He continues to paint and exhibit and also to study and make translations of Buddhist texts from Japanese to English.
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Installed at the Golden Duck, Chelsea, which was run by ‘Shura’ Shihwarg, a Russian sinophile who fought with the British to defend Hong Kong.
"Shura moved to London in 1951, where he met and fell in love with the novelist Joan Wyndham. The couple became a fixture of the bohemian Chelsea set of the 1950s. They married in 1963 and their house in Wellington Square off the King’s Road became an unofficial salon for artists, writers and various talented roguish types."
The character at the top of the table is Double Happiness, a ligature, "囍" composed of two copies of the Chinese character 喜 (xǐ), literally meaning joy, compressed to assume the square shape of a standard Chinese character, and is pronounced as a polysyllabic Chinese character, being read as 双喜 (shuāngxǐ).
- Creator:Martin Bradley (1931, British)
- Creation Year:1965, circa
- Dimensions:Height: 72.01 in (182.9 cm)Diameter: 72.01 in (182.9 cm)
- Medium:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Kingsclere, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2718216389842
Martin Bradley
Martin Bradley was born in 1931. The English painter is best known for abstract and symbolic artworks, influenced by the Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, as well as Buddhism, to which he converted. His name is always associated with travel; while he was traveling in Central and South America, he painted portraits of his shipmates. After his return to England, he studied Oriental languages, literature, and art history and developed a fascination with calligraphy art. During the 1950s, he moved to France, where he came in contact with Rudolphe Augustinci, who was the director of the famous art gallery. In 1978, Marcello Avenali, director of the Academy of Rome introduced him to Tatsuko. In 1979, entering in the ranks of the faithful of Nichiren Shōshū Buddhism, he lived in Mercatale in Val di Pesa, in the Chianti region (Tuscany, Italy) and signed a contract with Samy Kinge. Today, Bradley's artworks are held in the Tate Gallery collections in London, UK, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, USA. His artworks have been collected by Sir Barbara Hepworth, Sir Roland Penrose and Sir Herbert Read.
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