The postmodernist visionary passed away “peacefully” earlier this week
Pioneering postmodernist artist Duggie Fields has passed away aged 75. The news was announced on social media by his niece, who confirmed that Fields had passed “peacefully” on Sunday with “his older brother Howard by his side”.
Fields had been creating art from his famed Earls Court flat for over five decades. He emerged as one of Britain’s most influential figurative painters during the 1970s, and was part of the radical queer art collective “Them” alongside Derek Jarman, Kevin Whitney, Luciana Martinez, and John Dewe-Mathews.
His paintings were bright, bold and idiosyncratic. Fields took pop cultural icons – like Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse and The Droogs from A Clockwork Orange – and reimagined them, distorting their shape and colour, and mutilating their bodies. As his career progressed, he also began experimenting with music, video and digital art techniques, creating playful, psychedelic work for Transport for London and releasing his own single, So Cool, in 2016.
Fields was also a prevalent figure in the fashion world, dabbling in his own clothing designs and appearing regularly at London’s industry parties. In 2007, he walked the Paris runway for Comme des Garçons, having partly inspired Rei Kawakubo’s designs for that season. His modelling also extended to beauty: in 1982, at the age of 37, he became the face of Shiseido’s teen range, Perky Jean, which saw him become astronomically famous in Japan (he would apparently be mobbed in Tokyo’s streets by teenage girls).
The news of Fields’ passing was met with an outpouring of grief, with many of his friends, family and collaborators sharing tributes, such as step-niece Sarah Deech who called him “gentle, kind” and the “coolest man in London”.
