Stuart Sutcliffe's Works


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Born in Edinburgh Scotland in June 1940 to Charles and Millie Sutcliffe, Stuart Sutcliffe had two sisters Pauline and Joyce, and the family moved to Liverpool in 1943. Sutcliffe’s father was a Naval officer who was rarely home, and his mother Millie was a school teacher who raised the three children. Sutcliffe was described by his family and friends as “quiet and polite as young lad” and carried that calm demeanor into adulthood.

Sutcliffe showed artistic promise as a young boy and developed into a brilliant artist who eventually attended the Liverpool College of Art where he was introduced to John Lennon by Bill Harry a mutual friend. By 1958, John Lennon was much more interested in music than he was in art, but after meeting Sutcliffe the two became close and it was Stuart that encouraged John to paint. John was incredibly impressed with Stuart’s art portfolio, and John, as well as the other students and the faculty, believed that Sutcliffe was the most talented artist at the college.

When it came to temperament, Lennon and Sutcliffe were polar opposites, but Paul McCartney described them as “kindred spirits”, later admitting that he and George Harrison “had to take a bit of a back seat” to Stuart when he was around. According to McCartney they were a bit jealous of John and Stuart’s relationship. George described Stuart as “a thin, arty guy with glasses and a little Van Gogh beard; a good painter. He was great-looking and had a great vibe about him, and was a very friendly bloke. Harrison said he “liked Stuart a lot; he was always very gentle. John had a slight superiority complex at times, but Stuart didn't discriminate against Paul and me because we weren't from the art school. He started to come and watch us when we played at parties and he became a fan of ours. He actually got some parties for John, Paul and me to play at.”

Sutcliffe’s painting titled The Summer Painting, was selected for inclusion in the biennial John Moores exhibition at Liverpool's Walker Gallery, which took place between November 1959 and January 1960. The Summer Painting was bought by Moores himself, a significant event for a young art student. The painting sold for £65, which was the exact amount of money it cost to buy a new bass or a set of drums. John and Paul tried to persuade Stuart to use the money to buy one or the other as both positions were needed in the group, and eventually Stuart agreed to buy a Hofner bass.

In late 1959 Stuart joined the band and by 1960 it was Stuart and John that came up with the name The Beetles, John later changing the spelling to Beatles. According to George, “He wasn't really a very good musician. In fact, he wasn't a musician at all until we talked him into buying a bass. We taught him to play twelve-bars, like Thirty Days by Chuck Berry. That was the first thing he ever learnt. He picked up a few things and he practiced a bit until he could get through a couple of other tunes as well. It was a bit ropey, but it didn't matter at that time because he looked so cool. We never had many gigs in Liverpool before we went to Hamburg, anyway.

For 15 months Stuart Sutcliffe played bass guitar for The Beatles and it was in Hamburg that Stuart, John, Paul, George, and their original drummer Pete Best, honed their musical skills to a fine point playing 10 to 12 hours at a time at the Kaiserkeller Club. But Stuart was a painter first and art was something he couldn’t live without. After meeting Astrid Kirchherr, a budding young photographer, the two fell head over heels in love and Stuart’s attention began to seriously stray from the band.

Sutcliffe had previously been turned down when he applied to study for anArt Teachers Diploma course at the Liverpool Art College but after meeting Kirchherr, he decided to leave The Beatles and attend the Hamburg College of Art in June 1961 under the tutelage of the pop artist Eduardo Paolozzi.

Tragically, Stuart suffered a fractured skull after being beaten up outside after one of the Beatles performances. According to Allan Williams, the Beatles former manager, Pete Best and John Lennon came to Sutcliffe’s aid, fighting off the attackers until they could drag Sutcliffe out of harm’s way. Later, Stuart began experiencing severe headaches and acute sensitivity to light, and Kirchherr stated that some of the headaches left him temporarily blind. In 1962, while living at the Kirchherrs' house his condition got worse. After collapsing on 10 April 1962, Sutcliffe was taken to the hospital by Kirchherr who rode with him in the ambulance, but he was dead on arrival. The cause of death was cerebral paralysis, after bleeding in the right ventricle of his brain.

In viewing Sutcliffe’s few surviving works it is said that they reveal influence from the British and European abstract artist contemporary with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States. His earlier figurative work is reminiscent of the kitchen sink school, particularly of John Bratby, though Sutcliffe was producing abstract work by the end of the 1950s, including The Summer Painting, purchased by Moores.

To view more of Suart's works please visit his official webpage by clicking here.