Artist and teacher, born in Leeds, Yorkshire, who studied at Harrogate School of Art, 1963–5; Hornsey School of Art, 1965–8; and the British School at Rome, 1968–70, with an Italian Government Scholarship. Gained 1st Prize (UK) Bayer Herzlandschaften International, Amsterdam, Netherlands, and tour, 1974; Arts Council Awards, 1976–7–9; and 2nd Prize International Drawing Biennale, Middlesbrough, 1977. He was artist-in-residence, Ashby de la Zouch Upper School, 1983, gaining a Linbury Fellowship in Figurative Drawing, 1993, latterly teaching the drawing master’s course at Wimbledon School of Art. His many group shows included Serpentine Graphics, Serpentine Gallery, 1973; The British Art Show, tour, 1979; British Drawing, Hayward Gallery, 1982; John Moores Liverpool Exhibition, 1987; School of London, Odette Gilbert Gallery, 1989; and Recent Acquisitions, British Museum, 1996.
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When in 1992 Mason shared a show with three other artists at the Mistral Galleries, John N Hutchinson alluded to diverse events that had prompted works by this “unusual painter. His work is inspired by memories of his past life that to most of us would seem an intolerable burden. In the space of three years, his sister, brother, mother and father died from incurable diseases. Orphaned, he turned to painting as a form of relief from his great loss.” When, in 1989, Mason was commissioned by Stanhope Properties to paint the last phases of the Broadgate project in the City of London, he spent “time amongst the construction workers, working with them on the night shift and throughout the site”. Mason had many solo shows in Britain and abroad, later ones including A Line from East to West, Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1998, where he showed fiery, gestural canvases. He had work in a lot of public and corporate collections, including Arts Council, Bank of England Museum, British Council, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and Yale Center for British Art, both in America.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
