Biography
Known as a painter, designer, draughtsman, printmaker and teacher, Cliff Holden was born in Manchester in 1919. He initially studied agriculture and veterinary science, then latterly philosophy at the City Literary Institute in 1944, and it was here that he was to meet David Bomberg, a meeting that was a "sliding doors" moment in his artistic career. Cliff also met and befriended fellow artists Edna Mann and Dorothy Mead (with whom Holden was closely associated for 11 years).
In 1945 these artists followed Bomberg to the Borough Polytechnic and joined his group. In 1944–5 Holden and Bomberg conceived the Borough Group, established 1946, the first of seven shows taking place in 1947. Holden was its president, 1946–8, but resigned over policy issues. Bomberg reorganised the group, which disbanded in 1951.
Holden met the Swedish artist Torsten Renquist and in 1952 showed in Four Englishmen in Gummesson’s Gallery, Stockholm; in 1956 he was invited to show more in Sweden and set up a design studio in Gothenburg with Lisa Grönwall and Maj Nilsson; in 1959 Holden and the studio moved to Marstrand, the trio becoming known internationally as Marstrand Designers.
Works by Holden are held by Tate Britain, the V&A Museum, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Manchester City Art Gallery, amongst many others.
Cliff Holden died in April 2020 at the age of 100 after a highly successful career