Description:
22 August 2021
Thirty years ago today my best friend the artist Clifford Haseldine died (21/12/56 - 22/08/91). We were friends for 23 years. He lived in Hackney, studied at St.Martins School of Art, moved to Stoke Newington in the seventies as a student, then Brighton in the eighties where he met his beloved partner Andrew Copus. They moved to Leicester where Clifford died. He was honest, funny, bright and far braver than he ever realised. He changed my life and I think about him every day. Words by Robert Hamberger
Extract from the book ‘A Length of Road: Finding Myself in the Footsteps of John Clare’ by Robert Hamberger.
One summer we took our mothers to one of his few exhibitions, in a small gallery along Brighton seafront. Mysterious underwater landscapes were displayed alongside pictures full of penises and men taking part in wanking contests. My mother laughed and hooted at the rude ones until tears ran down her face. Clifford’s mother noted in the visitors’ book that she preferred the underwater landscapes.
There were years of self-doubt, when he had neither the space, the money nor the confidence to paint. Then, the year before he died, a waterfall of art poured from him again, as if it might save him: a self-portrait with a feather; an autumn cherry tree from his garden; portraits and simple charcoal nudes of Andrew, a patient model; stand-up wooden cut outs of dogs and cats and abundant flowers in vases, which he painted for money and never sold. Dozens of paintings, sketches, pen and ink drawings with water colour and chalk, which he told me were all about energy, so a cluster of images recurred in them. Cartoon-like pylons, chimney stacks, cannons, telegraph poles, Iight bulbs, gasometers, power stations and atomic mushroom clouds wrestled with river shapes swathing through each picture. Nature played a part in this energy. Suns and half-moons, seaweed, snail shells, thistles, bulrushes, lily pads and fuschias; a lightning bolt withering an orchid, and throughout these images what I assumed might be him confronting his impending death: a phoenix again and again, triumphant or maimed, a blue bird with outstretched wings.
Clifford Haseldine
Portrait of Andrew Copus by Clifford Haseldine
Charcoal drawing of Andrew Copus by Clifford Haseldine
The artist's cat by Clifford Haseldine
'Two trees' sketch by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (1) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (2) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (3) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (4) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (5) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (6) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (7) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (8) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (9) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy series 1990 (10) by Clifford Haseldine
Energy Series 1990 (11) by Clifford Haseldine
'Cherry Tree' by Clifford Haseldine
'Collage' by Clifford Haseldine
'Self portrait with feather' by Clifford Haseldine
'Landscape' by Clifford Haseldine
THE AIDS MEMORIAL (for Clifford and Andrew) a poem by Robert Hamberger (1)
THE AIDS MEMORIAL (for Clifford and Andrew) a poem by Robert Hamberger (2)
THE AIDS MEMORIAL (for Clifford and Andrew) a poem by Robert Hamberger (3)
THE AIDS MEMORIAL (for Clifford and Andrew) a poem by Robert Hamberger (4)
St Martin’s abstract by Clifford Haseldine
TWENTY, THIRTY YEARS AGO (for Clifford) by Robert Hamberger
Clifford with his partner Andrew Copus
