Julian Lethbridge (born 1947) is a British Ceylon-born, US-based, British abstract painter and drawer. ^{[1] [2]} His work is in permanent collections of museums in North America and Europe.

Early life

Julian Lethbridge was born in 1947 in Colombo, British Ceylon. ^{[3] [2]} He grew up in England. ^[2]

Lethbridge was educated at Winchester College, where he was a boarder from 1960 to 1966. ^[2] He enrolled at the University of Cambridge in 1966, graduating in 1969. ^[2]

Career

Lethbridge was a banker from 1969 to 1972, when he moved to New York City to embark upon a career as a painter and drawer. ^[2] Through his relationship with the American artist Jennifer Bartlett, he met Jasper Johns, who "became a kind of mentor" to him, and due to their closeness, many incorrectly assumed that they were lovers. ^[4]

By 1988, his work was exhibited at the Julian Pretto Gallery, and he was the recipient of the Francis J. Greenburger Award. ^[2] A year later, in 1989, his work was exhibited at the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York and the Daniel Weinberg Gallery in San Francisco. ^[2]

His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ^{[5] [6] [3]} the Whitney Museum of American Art, ^[7] the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., ^[2] the Art Institute of Chicago, ^[8] and the Tate Britain in London. ^{[9] [10]}

Personal life

In the 1970s, he had a relationship with the American artist Jennifer Bartlett, nine years his senior. ^[4] After Bartlett left him, he had relationships with the photographer Mary Ellen Mark, the feminist Germaine Greer, and the French novelist Katherine Pancol. ^[4]

Lethbridge lives in Manhattan and Connecticut and with until her death in 2020 Anne Hendricks Bass. They were together from the mid-1990s until 2020. ^[4]

They were taken hostage on her Connecticut estate in 2007. Five years later, in 2012, their butler was sentenced to 20 years in prison for attempted extortion. ^[11]

References