I am an artist and photographer living in London.
In the 1980’s when I took up photography there was some lingering debate about photography not being Art and certainly not equal to painting. Being at Art college rather than Photography college, I definitely saw myself as an artist and wanted to make my prints feel like an art object, for example if one was found in a car park it would seem worthy of consideration as an objet d’art rather than a random print to be thrown away. I did this by printing the entire image centrally on a large piece of paper so the image had a very large white border and this echoed the way images were traditionally presented when framed with the white surrounding mount. So, they were ready mounted/presented, so to speak, with the image purposefully displayed in the centre. I took this further by putting paint directly onto the white areas, or sticking cut-out shapes and symbols around the image making a decorative border and an artistic whole, by this action the works also became unique pieces, like paintings, rather than one of a limited edition, as a photograph usually is. One of these early works , a portrait of artist Cerith Wyn Evans with Stars and Moons, was published in Vogue in 1884, one of the first times’ I was published. The stars and moon’s were the stickers traditionally used in infants school to reward good work. I painted them black and arranged them on the white border around the image of Cerith. See the work in the ‘Painted’ section of this site along with some other early ideas from college.
After college, I had a show with Arthur Boyd and his son Jamie Boyd at Australia House, where I sold just one work and I realised I needed to get a job to live by the artistic principle I’d adopted. I took unusual employment to support myself (I became an equestrian and trained horses and taught pupils) To be fair this did hamper the painting side of my work, which has lain dormant until recently. But I still took many photographic portraits and also created the Pink Jack, which got me voted onto the Independent’s top 100 influential gay people in the UK in 2013 (more info further down page)
Probably my favourite artist is Henri Matisse. I love his sense of colour and use of motif and the decorative quality in his work. Derek Jarman once told me he thought all art came down to sex and I certainly get a sense of sexuality in Matisse’s work and it’s something inherent in my work. Spots, curves, spurts , touches, the curves of buttocks & breasts, nipples, cocks, gestural urges, ripe shapes, holes and wiggles…
My work is also about ‘presenting’, either/or, being both not one, which is it and the balance between two paths within myself.
Thoughts on my past
Having been a punk (albeit a fluffy mohair, gay one) I rebelled at the idea of the perfect print, technical excellence, the correct f-stop and all that stuff which the photography establishment eschewed. And like a punk band, I used a version of the three basic chords (for me, two basic settings) and clicked away. I took pictures only when I encountered them and took my camera everywhere.
The National Portrait Gallery first acquired one of my pictures, a portrait of Joe Tilson, in the mid 80’s and paid just £10 for it. They have since purchased 20 further works from the 1980’s and in 2017 gave me a solo show titled ‘ Before We Were Men’, to recognise the purchase of the work and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality.
In the 90’s I wanted to develop myself as an artist beyond photography and looking within myself for what I could say, I designed a new flag celebrating my sense of pride in being British and gay. I called the flag the Pink Jack. This was the first time a country’s National flag had been appropriated in such a way. Until this point only the Rainbow flag existed as a representation of gay pride. It was a world first. Ironically it wasn’t until 2006 (about six years after I created it) that it became relevant and took off. Britain was starting to acknowledge the contribution of gay people, equality was on the agenda, human rights were improving and civil partnerships had become legal. The Pink Jack echoed this and in 2013 I was voted 16th on the Independent’s list of the top 100 most influential gay people in Britain for creating the Pink Jack. This was a huge honour which made me cry when I told my partner..!
I first thought about become a photographer after discovering the work of Diane Arbus, Robert Mappelthorpe, Bailey and Beaton in the London studio of artist Brian Clarke, where I was living temporarily. It was about 1979. David Bailey was a frequent visitor to the studio and hearing the stories of his exploits, I thought a photographer would be a cool thing to be and I felt I understood the work of Arbus and Mappelthorpe and the other photographers I was discovering.
I got an Olympus Trip and began experimenting and with the encouragement of Brian I enrolled on a foundation course, which lead to art college .
I started photographing every interesting gay person I could and anyone else that caught my imagination. But being young and idealistic, I only took a picture if it ‘appeared’. I would never set it up.
London at that time, especially the art world and gay scene were dominated by America, especially New York and San Francisco. The English gay scene took its lead from America…Judy Garland, The Village People, Lumberjack shirted Clones, Levi 501’s, moustaches, broadway musicals and of course the rainbow flag.
This was about to change as a generation of ambitious and creative kids found each other on London’s gay club scene and coming out of the punk scene had their own identity, which was far removed from the US check shirted Clone. The movement started at Billy’s, then more famously Blitz, then played out at Hell, Club for Heroes, The Wag, Kinky Gerlinky and most famously Heaven, which was the largest and most spectacular gay club in Europe. The scene attracted artists, fashion designers, film makers, dancers, budding pop stars…everyone was going to be famous we all wanted to be Heroes. This creative scene was the start of London taking the crown from New York and becoming the leading force in the Arts. It was a time before camera phones, the internet and digital photography.
A few years ago I questioned if discovering photography so arbitrarily in Brian’s studio meant I was a fraud. How did I know I was a genuine artist if it wasn’t something I’d felt destined to be from an early age. Then, wandering around an exhibition of photographer Guy Bourdin’s work that year (2015) it dawned on me, that as a schoolboy, I had French Vogue delivered to the newsagent every month so I could look at the fashion photographs of Bourdin. I was crazy into fashion and always thought my love of Guy Bourdin’s pictures was for the fashion but of course I now realise it wasn’t as there aren’t really any clothes in his photographs, they are more about concept and strong design, I was into the picture itself- I was into the photography! So maybe I really was destined to be a photographer. I still have those Vogues.
My work is for sale, usually in Limited Editions of 5 0r 10 with two Artist Proof. Sizes vary for each print but are mostly A0, A1, A2, 12 x 16”, 20 x 16” and 20 x 24”. Larger sizes can be made available for certain images. Two of my portraits were recently shown at Tate Modern in the Leigh Bowery exhibition (2025) and I have work in the collections of The Smithsonian, Washington, The Royal Academy, The National Portrait Gallery London, The National Portrait Gallery Australia, The Cavallino Gallery Venice, The Nicholas Treadwell Gallery Austria, The Currell Collection London and many private collections. My work is also collected extensively by Daisy Green Food Ltd, who own Larry’s Bar at the NPG where four of my works hang and at their other sites, Ziggy Green W1, Margot SW4 and Glamarama Green SW7.
If you are interested in investing in a piece and would like further information please do get in touch at david@davidgwinnutt.com
Prices range from £400 to £5000. Bespoke pieces priced on application
Thank you for visiting
x david