The art world mourns the loss of David Heathcote, a multifaceted painter, sculptor, and revered scholar of Hausa craft, who has died at the age of 94.
An Artistic Life Forged in Africa
Heathcote's career was profoundly shaped by his years in Africa. After studying at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London, he moved to teach, first in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and then in northern Nigeria at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he led the art history department.
It was in Zaria during the late 1960s and 1970s that he began his pivotal work, meticulously interviewing Hausa artisans and documenting their fading skills. He assembled a major collection of over 400 objects, including embroidered dress, clothing, and leatherwork. His PhD focused on this embroidery, and much of his collection was later acquired by the British Museum, where it remains a vital resource for scholars.
His scholarship brought Hausa art to wider audiences through exhibitions like The Art of the Hausa at London's Commonwealth Institute in 1976 and publications. He even directed a short documentary film on the subject in 1978.
A Prolific and Joyful Creative Practice
Alongside his academic work, Heathcote was a dedicated and prolific artist. His own creative output was deeply influenced by his African experiences. While painting was his primary medium, he worked across bronze and stone sculpture, surreal ad hoc assemblages, collage, and drawing.
He exhibited at significant venues including the Museum of Mankind in London in 1989 and various galleries in London, Paris, and Nigeria. Institutions hold his work; Canterbury Christ Church University has three of his sculptures, and some early pieces reside in the Slade's collection.
In retirement from 1996, he focused intensely on painting. His art was described as joyful, vivid, and often dream-like, blending expressionist and occasional abstract elements. He sketched, drew, or painted every single day until his final weeks.
From Kent to the World: A Rich Biography
Born in London to Fred and Mabel Heathcote, David spent early childhood in the Victoria Street flat of artist Walter Spindler, for whom his father worked. The family later moved to Kent, where he attended Faversham Grammar School and witnessed the Battle of Britain overhead.
After wartime service in the RAF, his formal art training began at Canterbury College of Art, using a garden chicken shed as a studio, before his pivotal time at the Slade. There, he was taught by Lucian Freud and studied alongside peers like Paula Rego and Frank Auerbach, with art history lectures from Ernst Gombrich. A transformative encounter with a Picasso at the Tate Gallery steered him towards a cubist style.
He married twice: first to Ursula Dittman in 1961, with whom he had two daughters, and then to Janet Low in Bulawayo in 1968. With Janet, he moved to Nigeria and they had a daughter in 1971. The family returned to England in 1979, settling in Canterbury, where he became a senior lecturer at what is now Canterbury Christ Church University, remembered as an open, generous, and beloved teacher.
David Heathcote is survived by his wife, Janet, and his three daughters.
