William Crozier was born in Glasgow in 1930. A student at the Glasgow School of Art from 1949 to 1953, he subsequently spent time in Paris and Dublin before eventually settling in London, where his career truly began. In the English capital, he developed both style and reputation, exhibiting at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Drian Galleries and the Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery, institutions with which he would build lasting relationships. Crozier also taught for part of his career at the Bath Academy of Art, the Central School of Art and Design in London, the Studio School in New York and finally the Winchester School of Art.
Whereas London mostly turned to New York during the 1950s, Crozier – proud of being a European citizen and representative – turned to the old continent for inspiration. Post-war existential philosophy played a pivotal role in his embrace of European influences. He spent the year 1963 in Spain with the Irish poet Anthony Cronin and produced his first Mediterranean landscapes. Subsequent trips to Auschwitz and Belson in 1969 shone through in skeleton paintings that parallel themes and motifs present in German neo-expressionism. A move to Cork during this period did much to boost his creativity and productivity.
Forgoing his teaching position in the 1980s filled Crozier with renewed motivation, freedom and confidence, which all manifested in his work. The visual stimulation provided by his studios in West Cork (Ireland) and in Hampshire (England) were equally important factors.
Throughout his career, Crozier mostly painted landscapes and still lives, his approach to these genres evolving with his knowledge and mood. Vibrant colours, bold depictions, energetic brush strokes that confer an abstract quality to any image are nonetheless constants in his work and corpus. Overall, his emotionally charged works possess a latent romanticism. Moreover, his understanding of line work and momentum are what truly set a section of his work apart.
Movies have been produced and books have been written about the artist’s life, such as Gordon Smith’s William Crozier for Scottish TV (1970) and The Truth About a Painter directed by Cian Ó hEigertaigh for RTÉ (1993). Standout publications are William Crozier with essays by S.B. Kennedy and Phillip Vann from 2007 and William Crozier Early Work from 2010.
Acknowledgements also came in the form of prizes – Crozier was awarded the Premio Lissone in Milan in 1958 and the Oireachtas Gold Medal for Painting in Dublin in 1994.
Two major retrospectives deserve mention: In 1991, the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and the Royal Hibernian Academy curated a retrospective of his work. A major exhibition was also organised in 2005 in Cork (then European Capital of Culture) on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
Crozier passed away in his home in West Cork in 2011.
