Anthony Green RA

(1939-2023)

Anthony Green was a British painter and printmaker best known for his distinctive, irregularly shaped canvases depicting scenes from his domestic life. His work combines vivid colour, complex spatial construction, and a narrative approach rooted in memory, often centred on his relationship with his wife, the artist Mary Cozens-Walker. Born in Luton, Green studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, where he was influenced by artists such as Chaïm Soutine and Jean Dubuffet. While still a student he exhibited in the Young Contemporaries and later returned to teach at the Slade. A Harkness Fellowship in 1967 took him to the United States, where he began developing the large-scale, memory-based compositions that became central to his practice. Green was closely associated with the Royal Academy, exhibiting regularly in the Summer Exhibition from 1966. He was elected an Associate in 1971 and a Royal Academician in 1977, the same year he received the Exhibition of the Year Award. His work was widely exhibited in the UK and internationally, including tours in Japan and exhibitions in cathedrals across Britain. Alongside painting, Green worked in printmaking, producing lithographs at the Curwen Studio that translate his complex compositions and domestic subjects into print.