Andre Bicat (1909-1996)

Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1909 to French and Anglo-Irish parents, Bicat was an painter, printmaker, sculptor, designer and teacher.

He started out his career as a theatre designer for Mercury Theatre Productions, London (1932) and his greatest accomplishment in this field was working on a New York production of Murder in the Cathedral, by T S Eliot.  After the end of the Second World War he exhibited his art extensively in the UK and Europe.  He showed regularly at the Salon de la Jeune, Paris and in London at the Royal Academy and Redfern Gallery.  He also had numerous solo shows at the Leicester Galleries, London (1949-1968) and the Bohun Gallery, Henley (1975-1984).  

From 1947 – 1985 he lived in Crays Pond, near Reading before moving to London.  He was also a well-respected teacher at the Royal College of Art (1966 – 1974).

His work is held in numerous UK and international public collections including the British Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Gallery of Wales, Oxford University, Brooklyn Museum, Dallas Museum of Fine Art and Cleveland Museum, Ohio.  Nine of his prints are in the collection of the Tate Gallery and thirty-one prints are in the Government Art Collection. Retrospective exhibitions were held at Reading Museum and Art Gallery in 1966, the Attic Gallery, Swansea in 1997 and the Merriscourt Gallery, Sarsden in 1999.