Biography

One of Britain's most distinctive living artists, Maggie Hambling is best known to the public for her sculpture of Oscar Wilde in London, which was unveiled in 1998. Born in Suffolk, she studied at Ipswich, Camberwell and the Slade schools of art, and had her first solo exhibition in 1967. She became the first Artist in Residence at the National Gallery, London, in 1980. Her work is expressionistic and she has been known to paint portraits entirely from memory, building up her subject through swirls of colour.