Born 1937, London. Died 2022

Tom Phillips read English at St Catherine's College, Oxford from 1957-60, before going to Camberwell School of Art from 1961-63. He had his first solo exhibition at the AIA Gallery, in 1965. He taught at Corsham Academy of Art from 1966-67 and showed at the Venice Biennale in 1971.

A man of diverse interests from jazz to cricket, from systems music to opera: he wrote, performed and recorded his own opera Irma in 1973. He has translated and illustrated Dante's Inferno (Talfourd Press, 1981-82) and subsequently made a Channel 4 documentary. His style has always been highly eclectic, early on combining the decorative aspects of hard-edged abstraction with the narrative qualities of Pop Art, and a use of lettering to make highly referential, literate and semi-autobiographical works.

Elected to the Royal Academy in 1989, he had major solo exhibitions at the Mappin Art Gallery in Sheffield in 1987, the Royal Academy in London in 1992 and the South London Gallery and the Royal Academy in 1997.

His work is in the collection of the Arts Council.

	Oh Mozart, Mozart
	Study for the portrait of Lord Scarman
	Portrait of Lord Scarman