Winston Branch

Zachary II was made in London in 1982. Branch has spoken about his early interest in French painter Claude Monet’s (1840–1926) Water Lilies and later, the influence of fellow French painter Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and Russian painter Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955). This interest led to Branch’s use of ‘pure abstraction’ in his work. The ultimate excitement, he said, was ‘to explore the magic of paint: the way a total amorphous substance is transformed into an illusionary subject.’ Art historian Eddie Chambers has commented on the fact that Branch is akin to Frank Bowling. Both artists, in their commitment to abstraction, ‘confounded and frustrated stereotypes of what work a “Black artist” should be producing.’