Jack Simcock

{{short description|British painter}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Jack Simcock (6 June 1929{{cite book|last=Vann|first=Philip|title=Face to face: British self-portraits in the twentieth century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNYxAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=26 May 2013|year=2004|publisher=Sansom & Company|pages=261–|isbn=9781904537083 }}-13 May 2012) was a British painter. He was born to a mining family in Biddulph, Staffordshire and studied at Burslem School of Art. He is best known for "a long series of bleak, sombre oils on board" of the Mow Cop area in which he lived for much of his life.The Guardian, 31/05/2012, "[https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/may/31/jack-simcock Jack Simcock obituary]", 14/05/2013 Reginald Haggar highlighted the "richness of colour that underlies the seemingly black and white effects, glints of terracotta and old gold through steely grey" in a Sentinel article of 1963.

Simcock started exhibiting at London's Piccadilly Gallery from 1957 after encouragement from Arthur Berry and went on to have more than fifty solo shows worldwide.The Sentinel, 15/05/2012, " [https://archive.today/20130620224830/http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Artist-Jack-Simcock-dies-eve-exhibition/story-16087491-detail/story.html Artist Jack Simcock dies on eve of exhibition ]", 14/05/2013 His work is in various public collections in the UK which can be viewed through the Art UK website.{{Art UK bio|retrieved=9 January 2014|ref=1}}

Simcock's autobiography, Simcock, Mow Cop (1975) discusses his life, his beliefs and his artistic preferences. In the same year, Simcock also published a book of poetry entitled Midnight Till Three.{{cite web|url=http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=moreTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=BLL01015728594&indx=1&recIds=BLL01015728594&recIdxs=0&elementId=0&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&dscnt=1&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&frbg=&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1389309908335&srt=rank&mode=Basic&vl%28488279563UI0%29=creator&dum=true&tb=t&vl%28freeText0%29=jack%20simcock&vid=BLVU1|title=Catalogue record for "Midnight till three"|publisher=British Library|accessdate=9 January 2014}}

He died on the eve of the opening of "The Boys", an exhibition at Keele University, of his paintings, together with those of his fellow Burslem School of Art alumni, Enos Lovatt and Arthur Berry.