​Contemporary South African Art

Born: 1923 Bolton, Lancashire, England
Resided in SA 1960-1978

A painter of landscapes, seascapes, figures, portraits, genre, still life, animals and abstract pictures.  Works in oil, watercolour, gouache, ink, wash, pencil

and charcoal. 
Studies: 1939 Bolton College of Art under John Gauld ARCA (d.1962); Manchester College of Art; 1948-51 Royal college of Art, London under Robert Austin RA (1875-1973) becoming an Associate; 1951-53 Accademia Britannica, Rome.  In 1948 he gained

an Art Teachers Diploma. 
Profile: A member of the Manchester Academy of

Fine Art, the Liverpool Academy of Fine Art and the Chelsea Arts Club.  1951 elected an Associate

of the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers.  1964 founded the Grahamstown Group.  1958-60 Vice Chairman and Founder of the British Parliamentary Committee on Art Education. 

1960-78 Professor of Fine Art, Rhodes University; 1974-78 Director of the National Gallery of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe);

1979-82 a senior lecturer at Liverpool Polytechnic, UK; 1982 a senior lecturer at Bulawayo Polytechnic Zimbabwe. 

Numerous illustrations for magazines, including Harpers Bazaar; set and programme designs for theatres in Rome, London and in Germany.

A writer and in 1954-60 an art critic for The Bolton News and The Guardian in the UK; 1982 an art critic

for the Bulawayo Chronicle. During the 1960’s a member of the Board of Governors and a sound broadcaster for the SABC; 1974-78 a TV broadcaster for  the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation.  1

923-40 lived in Lancashire, UK; 1942-47 with the British Army in North Africa, Sicily, The Netherlands and Germany;

1951-53 lived in Italy, Austria, Germany and Spain; 1955-60 in Wales; 1982-83 in Zimbabwe; from 1983 he has lived in Wales

Exhibitions: He has participated in numerous group exhibitions from 1949 in the UK, SA, Zimbabwe, Italy, Belgium and Australia; 1952 Salford, UK, first of over 40 solo exhibitions held in the UK, the USA, SA, Zimbabwe and Australia; 1964 Quadrennial Exhibition.
Awards: 1949 Architecture Prize, Royal College of Art; 1950 Engraving Prize, Royal College of Art; 1951 Silver Medal, Royal College of Art; 1951 Prix de Rome (etching); 1956 British Arts Council Engraving Prize.
Represented: Art galleries in Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Salford, Rutherston, Whitworth, Oxford, Blackburn, Tillotson and Bangor in the UK; Johannesburg Art Gallery; King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth; National Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe; Pietersburg Collection; SABAC Collection, Johannesburg; University of Witwatersrand.
Publications by Bradshaw: The Culture Plan, 1960;

Art and Totality, 1969; Bolton Bred, 1984

References: Who’s Who in Art; Who’s Who in the World; Who’s Who in SA; Dictionary of English Artists; Exhibitors at the Royal Academy; SAA; IWAA; BSAK; 3Cs; AASA; LSAA; SA Panorama November 1970



Article credits to:

The Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors by Grania Ogilvie