Background
Peter Howson was born in London of Scottish parents and moved with his family to Prestwick, Ayrshire, when was aged four.
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Peter Howson
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Glasgow School of Artist
Career
He was the British official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War. He was raised in a religious family and the first ever painting he did was a Crucifixion, when he was 6 years old. His work has encompassed a number of themes.
His early works are typified by very masculine working class men, most famously in The Heroic Dosser (1987).
Later he was commissioned by the Imperial War Museum of London, to be the official war artist for the Bosnian/Hercegovina under Serbian and Croatian aggression in 1993. Here he produced some of his most shocking and controversial work detailing the atrocities which were taking place at the time, like Plum Grove (1994).
He was the official war painter at the Kosovo War for the London Times. In addition his work has been used on album covers by Live (Throwing Copper), The Beautiful South (Quench) and Jackie Leven (Fairytales for Hardmen).
His work is exhibited in many major collections.
Howson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2009 Birthday Honours. In November 2010, British Broadcasting Corporation Scotland aired a documentary named "The Madness of Peter Howson" which followed the final stages of the completion of a grand commission for show in the renovated Street Andrew"s Cathedral and also dealt with Howson"s struggle with mental illness and Asperger"s Syndrome. In September 2014, Howson suggested he would hand back his Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, predominantly due to his dislike of British foreign policy but it is not clear if he ever did southern
Achievements
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Born
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Nationality
United Kingdom -
Religion
Christianity