Bill Jacklin studied graphics at Walthamstow School of Art,
London from 1960 to 1961 before working as a graphic designer at Studio Seven,
London from 1961 to 1962. In 1962 he returned to Walthamstow to study painting
and subsequently studied at the Royal College of Art, London from 1964 to 1967. Bill
Jacklin moved to New York in 1985. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1991
and in 1993 was Official Artist-in-Residence for the British Council in Hong
Kong. Jacklin lives and works in New York, USA. The theme of the ice skater is
a regular motif in Jacklin’s work (these particular skaters are at the Wollman
Rink in New York). Jacklin compared the experience of observing figures going
about their business in cities to “the kind of feeling that you have when you
look up at the night sky about the fullness of time and life passing.
Everyone’s racing around, whether it’s the shadows, the people, or the clouds.”