Glyn Boyd Harte was born in Rochdale, where his father Herbert Harte was a commercial artist, designing labels and later a teacher. Attended Rochdale School of Art, then moving on to St. Martin's School of Art and Royal College of Art. First one man show at the Thumb Gallery in 1976. During the 1970s, Glynn drew a series of striking portraits of, among others, Stoppard, John Wood, Brian Eno, novelist Isobel Strachey, the aged Duncan Grant and the American composer Virgil Thomson, who became a staunch friend and later composed a piano portrait entitled Glynn Boyd Harte Reaching.
In 1979, Glynn produced a set of lithographs of London power stations, Temples Of Power, with an introduction and architectural notes by Gavin Stamp, and a foreword by Betjeman. This venture was the beginning of the great interest that historians took in power stations, which led eventually to the remodelling of Bankside as Tate Modern.He was artist-in-residence during the rebuilding of the Royal Opera House, and his paintings of the work in progress were exhibited on the re-opening night in December 1999. |
