Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart Sutcliffe (1940-1962) was a short-lived member of The Beatles and a painter who worked in a style related to Abstract Expressionism. He was never a skilled musician, having joined the group because of his friendship with John Lennon. He had left the Beatles to pursue his career as an artist before they achieved their success. Sadly, Sutcliffe died not long thereafter from a brain haemorrhage. It has been claimed that this was the result of a beating sustained in Liverpool while a member of the group, but it is more likely to have been a hereditary condition.

Sutcliffe’s importance to the group came from his artistic rather than musical talent. He was the first to have a ‘Beatles’ haircut, and his sense of style, helped by his lover Astrid Kirchherr contributed to the early Beatles look.

As an artist Sutcliffe displayed considerable talent from an early age. His few surviving works show the influence of the British and European abstract artists contemporary with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States. His more figurative work is reminiscent of the kitchen sink school, particularly John Bratby. His later gestural abstractions bear comparison with John Hoyland and Nicholas de Stael, though they are more lyrical.