Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips (b.1937) studied at Oxford from 1957 to 1960 and at Camberwell School of Art from 1961 to 1963. His early paintings established an eclectic approach to diverse styles and languages of picturemaking influenced by Pop Art. In paintings such as Benches (1970–71), he used postcards as source material as a means of relating the processes of painting to those of four-colour commercial printing, examining the imagery not for its implications about consumer culture but in support of themes of human mortality. This painting formed the basis of a design for a tapestry titled After Benches woven at Dovecot in 1973. Phillips also collaborated with the Master Weavers at Dovecot later in 1979 to create six tapestries for the Great Hall at St Catherine’s College, Oxford.