Winston Branch

Winston Branch was born in 1947, in Castries, the capitol city of the Caribbean island Saint Lucia. He attended Catholic school in Saint Lucia. His parents recognized his artistic talent and sent him to study in London, where they felt he would have better opportunities for success. 

The plan worked. He attended the Slade School of Fine Art at the University College London in 1966, from which he graduated in 1970. During that time, his work was bright, figurative, inspired by his professors, David Hockney and the other young British artists he met. His talent garnered him the prestigious British Prix de Rome, enabling him, at the age of 24, to attend the British School at Rome for a year. 

Branch has traveled extensively between Berlin, New York, St Lucia and California, painting, exhibiting and teaching. 

His awards include The British Council Award in 1973, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978 and the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Greenwich in 2022.

Branch taught at Fisk University in Nashville in 1973, was a Professor  of Art at the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 and Professor of Art at Kansas State University in 2000.

His paintings are in many public and private collections, including Tate Britain, the British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Arts Council of Great Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Sprint World Headquarters Campus, and Her Majesty’s Military Government in Berlin.

In 2023, Winston Branch decided to settle down in London. In an interview with Christie’s he said, “I want to write my name on the ledger of British culture.”