Coal Fire

Caulfield was a student at Chelsea School of Art from 1956 to 1960, and then studied at the Royal College of Art until 1963 alongside artists such as Allen Jones and David Hockney. His post-university trip to Greece has been deemed a pivotal moment in Caulfield’s artistic progression, with the bright Minoan frescoes providing inspiration for the artist's own vibrant colour palette. Caulfield’s participation in Whitechapel Gallery’s New Generation show in 1964 associated him with the pop art movement, a label that the artist strongly rejected. The following year, Caulfield was one of four artists to represent Great Britain at the Paris Biennale where he was awarded the prestigious Prix des Jeunes Artistes award. Other awards include his Turner Prize nomination in 1987, the Jerwood Painting Prize in 1987, and a CBE in 1996. Caulfiled’s work has been the subject of many retrospectives by galleries such as the Hayward Gallery (1999), whose show travelled to three other countries during its tour. Tate Britain hosted a major retrospective of his works in 2013.