Selected Exhibitions
2023
Energy Within Nature Oriel Museum and Art Gallery
2023
The Energy Within – Leonard McComb, Beam, Nottingham
2020
Out of the Crate, Manchester City Gallery
2018
Leonard McComb exhibition in the Belle Shenkman Room Royal Academy
2006
Leonard McComb R.A.A Retrospective Agnew’s
2004–2005
Talbot Rice Gallery Edinburgh and Wolsey Art Gallery Ipswich
2001
Between Earth and Heaven, New Classical Movements in the Art of Today Museum of Modern Art, Ostend, Belgium.
2000
Portraits New York Studio School Gallery, supported by the British Council
Jubilee Medal commissioned by the Vatican for the worldwide series of Jubilee medals to commemorate the Millennium
1997
The pursuit of Painting, Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin
1993
Leonard McComb Drawings and Paintings, Browse and Derby Gallery London
1990
Images of Paradise, Christies London
1990
The Journey, Lincoln Cathedral
1989
Paintings from the South, Gillian Jason Gallery, London
Watercolours and Drawings of the Sea, RAAB Gallery, Berlin
56 Portrait Etchings of Academicians and Staff, Friends Room Royal Academy, London.
1987
Viewpoint Selection of British Art, Museum of British Art Brussels
1986
Representation Abroad, Hirschhorn Museum, Washington D.C.
1983
Leonard McComb Drawing, Painting Sculpture, Arts Council Touring Exhibition
Organised by Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and shown at the Serpentine Gallery, London; City Art Gallery Manchester, Gardener Arts Centre University of Sussex, and the Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh.
British Drawing, Hayward Annual, Hayward Gallery London
1982
Representation Abroad, Drawings and Watercolours, British Council, China
1980
Venice Biennale; Open 80’ Exhibition. With works by Roger Ackling, Tony Cragg and Leonard McComb
1979
One Man Exhibition “Blossoms and Flowers” Coracle Press London
1977
British Painting, Royal Academy London
British Art Show, Arts Council England Touring Exhibition
1976
Human Clay, Hayward Gallery London
1976
Almost all previous work was destroyed by the Artist
Leonard McComb exhibited annually at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Works in Public Collections
Art gallery Oriel Mon, Anglesey
Arts Council England
British Council
British Museum London
University of Cambridge
Kelvingrove Art Gallery Glasgow
National Portrait Gallery London
Tate Gallery London
Royal Academy London
Victoria and Albert Museum
Girton College Cambridge
The Public Galleries of Bedford, Birmingham, Eastbourne, Leicester, Manchester, Swindon, Ulster, and Worcester
In addition to the above, McCombs’ work can be found in many private and corporate collections
Timeline
1930
Born 3 August in Glasgow
Father a Master Decorator and keen amateur landscape Painter.
1930–34
Lived in Northern Ireland Newtownards
1934
Family moved to outskirts of Manchester
1945–47
Junior Arts School Manchester
1947–48
Commercial Art Studio Salford
1948–50
National Service in the R.A.F. as Medical Orderly.
1951–54
Miscellaneous jobs – including freelance design, to support family after the death of his father in 1949
1954–1956
Manchester School of Art
1956–1959
Slade School of Art, University College London
1959–1960
Postgraduate in Sculpture, Slade
1960–64
Full Time Lecturer at the West of England College of Art Bristol
1964–1977
Head of Department of Foundation Studies Oxford Brookes University
1977–1983
Part time teaching at the Slade, Goldsmiths College, Royal Academy Schools, Canterbury and Winchester Colleges of Art, and Sir John Caste College, and later at the princes Trust
1974
He founded the Sunningwell School of Art Oxford
1990
Elected Royal Academician
1995 - 1998
Keeper of the Royal Academy Schools
1996
Honorary Member of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal Society of Printmakers and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters
2004
Awarded Honorary Doctorate by Oxford Brookes University
Major Commissions in the UK, Europe, and the USA
Ceramic and Tapestry Designs for Boots, Nottingham.
Oil Paintings on site at Bingham Canyon Copper Mines, USA for RTZ London,
Commemorative Bronze and Gold Leaf Portrait Plaque of John Brookes for Oxford Brookes University
Oil Painting of a Panoramic View of Purfleet Quay Kings Lynn Norfolk.
The Bartlett Mosaics at Westminster Cathedral London.
1999 Commissioned Portrait of the Novelist Doris Lessing for the National Portrait Gallery, London
2000 Selected by the Vatican to design a Jubilee Medal to commemorate the Millenium.
Prizes
1977 Jubilee Prize Royal Academy
1990 Korn Ferry Awards
1992 and 1993 Times Watercolour Prize
1997 Norstern Prize Royal Academy
1998 RWS Prize