Name Walter Kershaw Role Artist | Education Durham University | |
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Born 7 December 1940 Rochdale, Lancashire, England, UK Known for Graffiti, Street art, Sculpture, Mural | ||
Walter Kershaw, born 7 December 1940 in Rochdale, Lancashire, is an artist in oils and watercolours but is best known for his large scale, external, mural paintings in towns in Northern England and the Americas.
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Biography
Kershaw is the only son of Florence Kershaw (née Ward) (1916–2010), a retired school caterer; and Walter Kershaw (1917–1998), who was in the RAF from 1936 to 1946; at Duxford during the Battle of Britain, retiring as Flight Sergeant. He has two younger sisters. Kershaw attended De la Salle College in Pendleton, Salford, from 1951 to 1958; later as a student at King's College, Durham University (now part of Newcastle University) from 1958 to 1962, graduating with a BA Honours in Fine Art. Kershaw has been twice married and divorced but now has a son and daughter with Gillian Halliwell.
Kershaw has always been self-employed and still runs his studio business today. His early large external murals painted on slum properties alongside his provocative public sculptures attracted much media attention in the ‘60s, ‘70s and early ‘80s. For example, interviews with Anna Ford for Granada TV; as a guest of Janet Street Porter on London Weekend TV; Sue McGregor’s interview for "Conversation Piece" on BBC Radio 4; and as a guest alongside Eric Morecambe on Russell Harty’s BBC2 chat show.
George Best was a good friend to Kershaw and purchased six large drawings and oil paintings from him, whilst playing at Manchester United; and Bob Monkhouse was very kind to him, purchasing his paintings, corresponding and promoting his work on his BBC Radio 2 show.
Ian Potts, now at the BBC and then a student at Regent Street Polytechnic made a film "The First Graffiti Artist" about Walter’s work. This won the best student film award at the Cannes Film Festival.
His work is in public collections worldwide; including Bury Art Museum, Salford Museum and Art Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Arts Council, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the National Collection of Brazilian Art in São Paulo.
Paintings
Kershaw has travelled extensively and his work can be put into series; for example:
Murals
The murals are generally large scale, external artworks. Examples include:
Films
‘Terra Firma’ series on BBC2, 1976; ½ hour documentary commissioned by BBC2 for Walter Kershaw to paint a mural on a gable end. Location: Derby Street, Rochdale.
‘The First Graffiti Artist’, 1976; ½ hour documentary with fantasy interludes, on early murals. Produced and directed by Ian Potts, at that time a film student at Regent Street Polytechnic in London. Ian Potts now works in the Historical Film Department at the BBC in London. The film won best student film category at the Cannes Film Festival. Copies available from NW Film Archives in Manchester.
‘City of Norwich’ murals shown 12 February 1987; as part of the ‘Folio’ series by Anglia TV, directed by Michael Edwardes. ½ hour programme with Walter’s friend Ian Starsmore.
Radio
Invited guest of Sue McGregor on her ‘Conversation Piece’ series for BBC Radio 4 in late 1983; ½ hour show.
He was the subject of a half hour radio programme entitled 'Walter Kershaw: The UK's First Graffiti Artist?', first broadcast in September 2012 on BBC Radio 4.
Books
Murals feature in: Painting the Town, by Graham Cooper and Doug Sargent, 1979, Phaidon, ISBN 0-7148-1979-4; L’Art Publique by Jacques Damas (editor) and Francoise Chatel, Atelier D’a-Caen, 1982; A Northern School: Lancashire Artists of the Twentieth Century, by Peter Davies, 1989, Redcliffe Press Ltd, ISBN 0-948265-73-6 ; Trades and Industries of Norwich, by John Taylor and Joyce Gurney-Read, 1988, Gliddon Books, ISBN 0-947893-09-1; A Minstrel and the Amazon by John Harwood, 2007, Grafisa Edition – Manaus ISBN 978-85-99122-03-7