Robert Priseman

Robert Priseman Biography

Robert Priseman is one of the most popular and richest British artist who was born on January 4, 1965 in Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. As of June 1, 2023, Robert has a net worth approximately $5 Million. Priseman started work on the No Human Way to Kill series in 2007. It depicts the five methods of execution used by the USA (Hanging Firing Squad, Gassing Lethal Injection and Electrocution). Twelve etchings examine other methods of state-approved execution around the globe. This series explored how different countries execute condemned prisoners. It also examined the social construction of execution as a form of group catharsis. No Human Way to Kill was shown at The Dazed Gallery, London, in 2008 and at The White Box, New York, in 2010 and 2011. Original paintings and drawings can be found at Amherst College in Massachusetts. A set of twelve etchings is at the V&A, London.

The ‘Gas Chambers series was created by Priseman following the success of ‘No Human Way to Kill.’ These were first displayed at The Minories Galleries in Colchester, UK. This project focuses on three aspects. It focuses on Nazi Germany’s developmental steps that started with the gassing and ended in genocide. The Wannsee Conference participants are portrayed in the first part. The second part is six pencil drawings that look like hand-coloured postcards. They show the outside of hospitals in Germany and Austria, where the T4 Euthanasia program took place between 1939-1941. The third section consists of five large oil paintings measuring 6 x 9 feet each. These paintings trace the Nazis’ progress towards industrialized killing, which culminated at Auschwitz. In addition to being exhibited at CoCA in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2010, and Arch 402 Gallery in London in 2012, the project was also shown. The Wannsee portraits can be found at the Tweed Museum of Art in Duluth Minnesota, USA, and the rest of the collection at Museum der Moderne in Salzburg, Austria.

Priseman studied Aesthetics at the University of Essex with Professor Michael Podro. He began his career as a book designer for Longman (1989-1992). He began painting portraits in oils while there, working with sitters such as the Dalai Lama and Phil Collins. This period’s work is preserved in a number of public collections, including the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle and Corpus Christi College Cambridge. He stopped painting portraits and began a series of thematic works that aimed to provoke dialogue about socio-political and psychological issues. These works include The Hospital Paintings (subterraneans), The Francis Bacon Interiors (no human way to kill), The Troubles, and Nazi Gas Chambers.

Between 2006 and 2008, The Francis Bacon Interiors were painted. They depict the Paris hotel room in which Francis Bacon’s lover, muse George Dyer, committed suicide. Also, it shows the room in a Catholic Madrid hospital where Bacon died. And a series studios in which he painted. The ‘The Francis Bacon Interiors’ were part of the ‘The Subconscious Revealed,’ an exhibition that was curated by Priseman at Huddersfield Art Gallery. It was held in 2009. The exhibition also featured Bacon’s Figure Study Two and works by Freud and Auerbach as well as Sutherland and Kossof.