Nicholas (Nick) de Ville (born 1944) is a British graphic artist and academic. He is best known through his
cover art for
Roxy Music. He became a departmental head at
Goldsmiths College in 1987.[1][2]
Early life
In an interview, de Ville stated that "I was born in a small town, rural Staffordshire, in the Midlands."[3] His parents were Geoffrey Ham De Ville (or Deville) (1909–1986), a butcher in
Uttoxeter, and his wife whom he married in 1932 Gladys Joan Babb (born 1911);[4][5][6][7][8] the cricketer
Roger de Ville was his elder brother.[9] The family home was Honeycroft, Bank Close, Uttoxeter, and Nick submitted a "Still Life" to the
Royal Academy from there in 1963.[10]
De Ville appeared in a school play at
Abbotsholme School in 1955, which he attended from 1953 to 1962.[11][12][13] He commented "I left school about 1962, and I went to study architecture at Manchester University. And I was there for two terms, and I realized I was not enjoying it. So then I came back home and I went to the local art school for two years."[3]
In lodgings in Newcastle, de Ville lived almost adjacent to
Bryan Ferry and
Tim Head in Eslington Terrace; they were two more art students in Hamilton's orbit.[11] De Ville became a close friend of both.[17] Graduating in 1969, de Ville took a lecturing position at Derby for two years, but also maintained links, He worked as a studio assistant to Hamilton. He made his way to London with a position at Goldsmiths in 1971. He was responsible for the first
Roxy Music album cover (1972), using the fashion photographer
Karl Stoecker, also for subsequent covers, and became the band's art director.[11][18][19]
Academic
For the decade 1971 to 1981, de Ville taught part-time at Goldsmiths, Derby and other art colleges. He moved up, to be Course Director of the Fine Art Masters course director at Goldsmiths, from 1982 to 1991, from 1987 also head of Fine Art there, to 1997. He was then appointed Director of Research in the Department of Art, and in 2004 Head of Department of Art.[11]
Works
Lenare, the Art of Society Photography, 1924-1977 (1981), with introductory essay by
Anthony Haden-Guest[20]
^Royal Academy of Arts (Great Britain) (1973). Royal Academy Exhibitors, 1905-1970: A Dictionary of Artists and Their Work in the Summer Exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts. Vol. 2. EP Publishing. p. 160.
ISBN978-0-85409-980-1.
^Pioneers of Pop, 2017
Hatton Gallery, catalogue essay by Gill Hedley
^Bracewell, Michael (17 February 2011). Re-make/Re-model: Art, Pop, Fashion and the making of Roxy Music, 1953-1972. Faber & Faber. pp. 76 and 344.
ISBN978-0-571-27670-7.