Christopher Le Brun

Sir Christopher Mark Le Brun PPRA is a British artist, known primarily as a painter. President of the Royal Academy of Arts from 2011 to December 2019, Le Brun was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours "for services to the arts".

Le Brun was born in Portsmouth in 1951. From 1970-74, he studied for the DFA at Slade School of Art and for an MA at Chelsea College of Arts between 1974-75. He has taught and lectured at art schools, including Brighton, the Slade, Chelsea, Wimbledon and Royal Drawing School. A double prizewinner at the biennial John Moores Painting Prize, Le Brun was one of ten Shortlisted Prize Winners in 1978, and won 3rd Prize in 1980. His first solo exhibition was in 1980 with Nigel Greenwood Gallery and soon after he was included in international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and Zeitgeist at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin. His international art include, "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture]" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1984, "Avant-garde in the Eighties" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1987 and "Contemporary Voices" at MoMA in 2005.

He was one of the five artists shortlisted for a monumental sculpture commission, the Ebbsfleet Landmark (Angel of the South) in 2008. In 2011, he was the chief co-ordinator of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. On 8 December 2011, he was elected president of the Royal Academy and interviewed about his role by the Guardian Professional Networks in 2013. During his presidency, he was closely involved in the most significant redevelopment in the academy's 250 year history. Le Brun stepped down in December 2019. He lives and works in London and is married to the artist Charlotte Verity.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023