Chris Gollon

[1][2] Born in London, England, Chris Gollon was a technically innovative painter, bringing both Old Master techniques and printmaking methods into the medium of acrylic.

Gollon produced a painting entitled 'House of Sleep' for the 'ROOT' exhibition, which began his nineteen-year fascination with artistic boundary crossing, and how one art form can take another into new areas of thought and feeling and vice versa.

[7] 'House of Sleep' sold into a private collection in 1998, but it was loaned for the museum retrospective in 2019 at Huddersfield Art Gallery, in the catalogue for which Thurston Moore wrote "Chris Gollon's work moves beyond painting as singular expression, where music and its essence of spiritual sentience, comes into accord, creating a personal yet welcoming environment, alive and free.

[15] His painting of the fourth Station of the Cross (Jesus meets his Mother) was shown in the exhibition Presence: Images of Christ for the Third Millennium in St Paul's Cathedral in 2004, along with works by Bill Viola, Tracey Emin, Maggi Hambling and Craigie Aitchison.

This painting was subsequently purchased by the Huddersfield Art Gallery[17] in West Yorkshire, where it hangs in the museum's permanent collection alongside Sir Jacob Epstein's bust of Einstein, and works by Francis Bacon, Walter Sickert, Henry Moore and L.S.

Fifteen years of Gollon's paintings and imagery, together with music that he has selected (including Calexico and Paolo Conte), combine with JABOD's design, rhythm and effects to create a film installation of 20 minutes length.

[23] The catalogue includes texts on Gollon's work by Tamsin Pickeral, Prof. Ash Amin, Prof. Frances Bartkowski, Prof. Eduardo Mendieta, Ulisses Barres de Almeida, Adi Ophir, Prof. Ingo Gildenhard, and a poem "Human" by Michael O'Neill.

Also in 2009, after nine years in the making, Gollon's series of paintings of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross was installed in the Church of St John on Bethnal Green in East London.

[29] Chris Gollon was Artist in Residence at St Mary's College, Durham University, from April to June 2011, where he began a series of paintings on the ancient theme of Love.

Gollon's solo show in Guildford Cathedral Incarnation, Mary & Women from The Bible (28 January – 3 March 2014), was accompanied by a 40-page colour catalogue entitled Incarnation, Mary & Women from The Bible[31] reproducing all 16 paintings, edited by David Tregunna and with texts by Sara Maitland, Tamsin Pickeral, Canon Dr Andrew Bishop and Canon Dr Julie Gittoes.

In 2013, Gollon began a 41 ft long painting entitled 'And It Came To Pass' that is also a 50–50 collaboration with Grammy-nominated Chinese classical virtuoso musician and occasional composer Yi Yao.

[32] This collaborative work was premiered—as part of the programme—at the Henley Festival 2014, where Yi Yao and her ensemble performed her composition twice each evening beside Chris Gollon's painting.

The exhibition at Chichester brought media attention since Gollon painted what is widely believed to be the first-ever image in art history of Judas Iscariot's wife.

[39][40] In 2017, the last interview with Chris Gollon regarding his secular paintings and the influence of music appeared in Nick Soulsby's book Thurston Moore: We Sing A New Language.

[41] In this interview, Gollon explains the combination of the atmospheric 52-second tape Thurston Moore sent him, which also prompted the memory of a scene from the 1972 Robert Redford film 'Jeremiah Johnson', both helped him create the image 'House of Sleep' for the 1998 'ROOT' exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, London.

The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester, writes in the catalogue: "I've really come to love Chris Gollon's work and the expressive ways that he represents the human form with exaggeration creating a greater realism.

"[7]The exhibition demonstrates the three ways Chris Gollon used music to relate his imagery to the spectator, and it includes works from his collaborations with Thurston Moore, Yi Yao, and Eleanor McEvoy, as well as paintings partially inspired by Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

[45] The same year the feature-length documentary 'Chris Gollon: Life in Paint' was completed, directed by Mark Calderbank and produced by Peter Dunphy; featuring Maggi Hambling, Thurston Moore, André Portasio, Sara Maitland, Tamsin Pickeral and Eleanor McEvoy.

House of Sleep by Chris Gollon, 48" × 36" (153cm × 122cm), acrylic on panel, 1998, first exhibited in 'ROOT' at the Chisenhale Gallery , London
Chris Gollon in his studio in Surrey , painting Stations of the Cross XIII: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
South aisle of St John on Bethnal Green in London , including some of Chris Gollon's Stations of the Cross series of paintings
Einstein & The Jealous Monk by Chris Gollon, 2004