{{Short description|British artist (born 1948)}} {{BLP sources|date=May 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Use British English|date=August 2017}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = John Yeadon | honorific_suffix = | image = | caption = | birth_name = John David Yeadon | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1948}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | monuments = | nationality = | other_names = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = {{Plainlist| * Painter * Art educator }} | employer = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | television = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = | website = {{URL|johnyeadon.com/blog/}} }}
'''John David Yeadon''' (born 1948) is a British artist and art educator. A practicing artist for over 50 years, he explored issues of politics, sexuality, food, national identity, the grotesque and carnival. In the 1980s, his work was provocative with issues relating to male sexuality.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West|first=Emmanuel|last=Cooper|date=25 February 1994 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780415111003|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sexualperspectiv0000coop}}</ref><ref name="BBC-55458">{{cite web|url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/modern-art-disco-drawing-55458|title=Modern Art, Disco Drawing|work=Art UK|accessdate=16 August 2015}}</ref> An eclectic artist, essentially a painter and printmaker, his work has included text, digital images, and photography, and he has worked on banner making, theatre design and has collaborated with video artists.<ref name="LUX">{{cite web|url=http://lux.org.uk/collection/works/1001-boys-games|title=1001 Boys Games|work=LUX Collection|accessdate=16 August 2015}}</ref>
Yeadon's grandmother was the ventriloquist Annie Howarth, who worked under the stage name Josephine Langley. Recurring themes in his paintings since 2010 include his mother and grandmother's ventriloquist dummies.<ref name="Chamberlain">{{cite web|url=http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/whats-on-news/miniature-art-work-show-nuneaton-8404596|title=Miniature art work on show at Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery|last=Chamberlain|first=Julie|date=8 January 2015|work=Coventry Telegraph|accessdate=16 August 2015}}</ref>
He has exhibited over 30 one-person shows throughout Britain and abroad, including in Portugal and Germany, and Britain, including the Royal Festival Hall, Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow and Ikon, Birmingham. His group shows included the British Art Show (1985/6) and exhibitions in Germany, Holland, Portugal and Hong Kong.
He set up the Coventry-Dresden Arts Exchange in 2012.<ref name="Yeadon" />
== Dirty Tricks ==
Yeadon's 1984 exhibition Dirty Tricks at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry was at the high point of AIDS paranoia and gay 'blame', Yeadon's forthright, radical, critical, 'in your face' paintings challenged preconceptions on sexuality and society. These paradoxes disturbed and offended some Tory councillors.
The ''Coventry Evening Telegraph'' declared that it was 'Smut Not Art' in a homophobic editorial rant. However, the exhibition increased the attendance at the Herbert by 40%. Later that year, works from this exhibition were exhibited at the Pentonville Gallery in London and the British Art Show of 1985. The Arts Council of Great Britain bought a version of 'The Last Chilean Supper',<ref>{{cite web |title=The Last Chilean Supper |url=https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-last-chilean-supper-64356 |website=Art UK |access-date=7 April 2024 |language=en}}</ref> one of the 'lavatory wall smut' paintings derided in the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
== Fat ==
Again, Yeadon was criticised by the local media for including tiny images of obese people culled from the Internet in his exhibition on food; these pictures were removed from the exhibition.{{cn|date=April 2024}} ''Fat: The mortality of the eater and the eaten'' at the Bath Place Community Venture in Leamington Spa in 2010.<ref name="BBC-8694040">{{cite web|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/8694040.stm|title=Photo of vomiting woman removed from Leamington show|date=20 May 2010|work=BBC Online|access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref>
== Harwell computer ==
Yeadon's 9×7ft painting of the Harwell Dekatron computer, later known as the Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing from Harwell (WITCH), ''Portrait of a Dead WITCH,'' made in 1983, was exhibited at the 1984 Leicestershire Schools and Colleges show and subsequently purchased by Newbridge High School, Coalville, Leicestershire.<ref>{{cite web |title=Painting by John Yeadon: "Portrait of a Dead Witch" - a Freedom of Information request to Leicestershire County Council |url=https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/painting_by_john_yeadon_portrait |website=WhatDoTheyKnow |access-date=28 September 2021 |date=1 September 2021}}</ref> Within two years of that school becoming a private academy school, the painting was sold at auction in 2015 to an undisclosed private buyer.<ref name="Yeadon" />
A campaign by The National Museum of Computing (TNMC) resulted in the rediscovery of the painting, by then displayed at the Jam Street Cafe Bar in Whalley Range, Manchester. Bar owner Kaldip Bhamber, who has a fine arts degree, was unaware of the painting's provenance when she purchased it. Yeadon has visited the painting at its new location.<ref name="Kennedy">{{cite news |last1=Kennedy |first1=Maev |title=Portrait of world's oldest computer rediscovered in Manchester cafe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/28/portrait-worlds-oldest-computer-witch-rediscovered-manchester-cafe-john-yeadon |accessdate=28 March 2016 |work=The Guardian |date=28 March 2016}}</ref>
The painting was a subversive irony on 'computer art'; that is, a painting of a computer posing as 'computer art'.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} After 35 years, Yeadon painted ''Portrait of a Live WITCH'', a second version of the work, for the 5th anniversary of the restoration of computer at the TNMC. In February 2018, the two paintings were brought together for an exhibition on Yeadon's 70th birthday at TNMC.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}
== Teaching ==
Yeadon has been a visiting lecturer at Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art, at Goldsmiths College, Chelsea College of Art, Wimbledon School of Art, Glasgow School of Art and, whilst as a full-time Lecturer from 1973 to 2002, at Coventry University, where he eventually led the MA Fine Art course.<ref name="Yeadon">{{cite web|url=http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e320-Privatising-public-art|title=Privatising public art|last=Yeadon|first=John|date=15 August 2015|work=Morning Star|accessdate=16 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150818172554/http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-e320-Privatising-public-art|archive-date=18 August 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== Works == * ''The Last Chilean Supper'' – Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre * ''Modern Art, Disco Drawing'' – Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website|http://johnyeadon.com/blog/}} * {{Art UK bio}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeadon, John}} Category:British artists Category:Academics of Coventry University Category:Academics of the Slade School of Fine Art Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century British artists Category:21st-century British artists Category:Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London Category:Academics of Chelsea College of Arts Category:Academics of Wimbledon College of Arts Category:Academics of the Royal College of Art Category:Academics of the Glasgow School of Art