Overview

Joe Tucker's Uncle Eric was a beloved yet unconventional figure throughout Joe's life. A shambolically dressed man who lived with his mother for almost eighty years, he had an almost compulsive need to charm strangers with working men's club comedy routines, and appeared to exist only for daily trips to the bookie - and yet had also amassed over five hundred of his own remarkable paintings without anyone ever realising his achievements. Towards the end of his life, Eric requested an exhibition of his work. As Joe and his family sorted through hundreds of paintings of street scenes, circus and theatre performers, and busy pubs, they began to ask more questions about Eric's life: why had this fanatically sociable man never left his mother's home? Had Eric ever experienced love when he painted it so beautifully? And what had driven him to create so much, yet share it so rarely? In this touching, funny and thoughtful investigation of the nature of expression, the ownership of art and the secret life of those nearest to us, Joe Tucker brings us into his uncle's extraordinary and compelling world. Perhaps more importantly, he also brings Eric Tucker's life's work into ours.

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9781805300663

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Reviews

'Tucker's paintings are full of warmth' - The Times 'Tucker's work isn't just romantic in its mystery, but significant to British art as a whole. The man represents a cultural movement, encapsulating a too often ignored group of painters who studied a life hidden from London's social scene' - iNews 'Tucker's subjects ooze character' - NPR 'The collection is a remarkable, important find. Northern artists are so often written out of history' - RUTH MILLINGTON 'An artist virtually unknown until his death in 2018 but since compared to L.S. Lowry' - Guardian '' -

Tucker's paintings are full of warmth * * The Times * * Tucker's work isn't just romantic in its mystery, but significant to British art as a whole. The man represents a cultural movement, encapsulating a too often ignored group of painters who studied a life hidden from London's social scene * * iNews * * Tucker's subjects ooze character * * NPR * * The collection is a remarkable, important find. Northern artists are so often written out of history -- RUTH MILLINGTON An artist virtually unknown until his death in 2018 but since compared to L.S. Lowry * * Guardian * * Eric Tucker was shunned by the art world all his life. But after his death, his home was found crammed with portraits of a working class-life - and now they are selling for small fortunes * * Daily Mail * * To find a collection of that quality is an incredible coup for British art, and a win for the art community in general . . . That he did this without any ambitions for recognition only makes the work he's created more honest and true to the life he led -- ELISE BELL Tucker was an irregular who painted regulars . . . [he] works pictorial magic with pub tables, arranging them like stepping stones into the distance and fixing them in position with bottles of stout. He has a sophisticated sense of design: he likes playing abstract games with circles and squares * * Spectator * *

Author Information

Joe Tucker originally trained as an animation director before becoming a television scriptwriter. With his scriptwriting partner, Lloyd Woolf, he has created and written the BBC shows Witless, Click & Collect and Black Ops.

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