Martin Bradley Biography
Martin Bradley was born in Richmond (Surrey) in England.
Throughout his childhood, his dream was to become a painter, but his legal guardians were firmly opposed to this vocation. He runs away from school and boards several boats. After 4 years, he arrived in London where he learned Chinese calligraphy, Tibetan and met the writers of the group of "angry young men" and in particular John Osborne, Colin Wilson, Bill Hopkins and Harold Pinter.
In 1956, he signed a contract with Gallery One in Soho, directed by Victor Musgrave, who encouraged him and stimulated his artistic development by helping him as much as he could. In 1958, he earned a degree on a scholarship in Brazil, where he studied Brazilian folklore, language and literature as well as painting. The Brazilian Ambassador to London, Assis Chateaubriand, purchases nineteen paintings from the Matthiesen Gallery, for the Presidential Palace in Brasilia. Subsequently, he returns to Europe and signs a contract with RA Augustinci's Galleria Rive Gauche, which actively supports the "other figure", whose aspirations are essentially those of the Cobra Group. In 1961, he took part in the historic "Art and Contemplation" exhibition organized by Paolo Marinotti at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, among the artists represented were Fontana, Dubuffet, Rothko, Tapies and Jorn. In the 1960s he painted and studied in London, Ibiza and Paris. In 1968, he stayed in India and Nepal, where he studied Buddhism in more depth, both in Tibetan and Chinese, with the help of monks and lamas. He also studies traditional Buddhist painting and iconography and will return to Asia several times. In 2009, he moved permanently to Japan.
