ABOUT 
CRAIGIE 
AITCHISON

 1926   Born at 12 India Street, Edinburgh on 13 January.

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1930s  Family holidays on the Isle of Arran.

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1937–1941  Attends Loretto School, East Lothian, as a boarder.

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1941  Death of Aitchison’s father, Craigie Mason Aitchison. Aitchison leaves Loretto and instead attends private tutors in Edinburgh, Basil Paterson & Ainslie.

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1943  Conscripted for military service but subsequently discharged for medical reasons.

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1944–1946 Studies jurisprudence and British history at the University of Edinburgh.

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1948 Admitted to study for the bar at Middle Temple and moves to London.

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1950 Converts a mews house in Church Lane, Edinburgh, behind the family home at India Street, into a studio. Paints still lifes which are sold at the neighbouring flower shop of Elizabeth Bell.

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1951  Moves to London and starts taking private lessons in painting from Adrian Daintrey.

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1952  Takes private tuition from Gerald Frankl.

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1952–1954  Studies at the Slade School of Fine Art on a part-time basis for three-day weeks. Increases to six days in 1953.

1953  Moves to 22A Lower Marsh, Waterloo, with his Slade friend Myles Murphy.

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1954  Exhibits in Six Young Contemporaries, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London.

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1955  Wins a two-and-a-half-month-long British Council scholarship to study in Rome. Travels there with Myles Murphy in a taxi cab which they acquired for the purpose.

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1956  Exhibits in Three Romantic Painters, Gallery One, London. Returns to Scotland and paints landscape at Tulliallan, Scotland – a family home of his mother’s.

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1958  Paints his first Crucifixion.

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1959  First solo exhibition held at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London.

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1960  Solo exhibition held at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London. ‘Craigie Aitchison: Fragments from a Conversation’ published in the literary magazine X: A Quarterly Review.

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1961  Exhibits in a touring Arts Council exhibition New Painting 1958–61 at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Sale of the Aitchison home at Tulliallan.  Moves to London.

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1962  Searches for a house for him and his mother. Eventually they move to 32 St Mary’s Gardens, Kennington. Elected a member of the London Group. Part-time teaching at Regent Street Polytechnic and meets Georgeous Macauley, a professional model. Macauley sits for Aitchison until 1976.

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1964  Solo exhibition held at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London. Exhibits in Painting and Sculpture of a Decade 1954–64 at the Tate Gallery, London.

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1968  Exhibits in Helen Lessore and the Beaux Arts Gallery at Marlborough Fine Art, London. Solo exhibition held at Marlborough Fine Art. Starts teaching part-time at Chelsea School of Art.

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1970  Death of Aitchison’s mother. Returns to the Isle of Arran where he scatters her ashes. Solo exhibition held at Compass Gallery, Glasgow, with stock loaned from Marlborough Fine Art. Leaves Marlborough Fine Art due to a lack of opportunities to exhibit.

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1971  Sees a Bedlington terrier for the first time at the Crufts Dog Show. Purchases his first dog of this breed, Wayne. Solo exhibition held at Basil Jacobs Gallery, London.

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1973–1975  Represented by Rutland Gallery, London.

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1974  Prize winner at John Moores Liverpool Exhibition. Exhibits in British Painting ’74 at the Hayward Gallery, London.

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1975  Solo exhibition held at the Scottish Arts Council, Edinburgh.

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1976  Awarded an Arts Council Bursary.

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1977  Solo exhibition held at Knoedler Gallery, London. Buys a property in Montecastelli, Tuscany, Italy.

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1978  Elected as an Associate Royal Academician.

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1979  Solo exhibition held at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. Includes five works in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

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1981–1986  Represented by David Grob.

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1981–1982  Retrospective exhibition organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, held at the Serpentine Gallery, London, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Milton Keynes and Bolton.

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1984  Exhibits in The Hard-won Image at the Tate Gallery, London.