DEREK BOSHIER
Born June 19, 1937 in Portsmouth on the southern coast of England, Derek Boshier established an international reputation as part of the leading edge of British pop art. He attended the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962 where he worked alongside David Hockney, Allen Jones, and R.B. Kitaj and was featured in the influential BBC documentary Pop Goes the Easel. In 1963 he began teaching at the Central School of Design, and concurrently at the Royal College as well starting in 1973. In the 1970s, he shifted somewhat away from painting in favor of video, photography, and installation work, as well as album design for famous friends including the Clash and David Bowie. He moved to Houston in 1980 after accepting a visiting artist position offered by the University of Houston; the position became permanent and he remained until 1992. During his Houston years, he showed his work frequently at Texas Gallery and at exhibitions including Derek Boshier: Paintings, 1980-1981 and Derek Boshier: The Texas Years at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (1981, 1995) and Fresh Paint: The Houston School at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1985). He moved back to England but returned to the US in 1997 to accept a position at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia. He has work at the Tate in London, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in collections and museums around the world.
Pete Gershon interviewed Derek Boshier at Redbud Gallery on April 6, 2019, while visiting Houston to open the exhibition Selected Works, 2004-2019. Derek’s been interviewed exhaustively, but here we stayed pretty specific to his Houston experience. The persistent dog is Sharon and Gus Kopriva’s hairless Peruvian pup Otto.
Further Research:
Tate Modern artist page and video
What Do Artists Do All Day, zarahayes.com
Derek Boshier in Public Art - University of Houston System
This project funded in part by the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance