1940
Born in Luton.
1957
Starts training as a painter at Luton College of Technology and Art.
1959
Barker decides to break with his art school training. He refuses to take up a place offered by St. Martin's School of Art, London.
1960
Starts working on the assembly line at Vauxhall Motors, Luton. Working with chrome-plated and leather-upholstered car parts will later prove to be a formative experience.
1961
Gives up his job at Vauxhall Motors and moves with his wife Rose Bruen to London. Commences working for a pawnbroker. Starts concentrating on making objects. Using corrugated cardboard, Barker fabricates a series of five targets, realising his own version of this Pop Art icon. He also makes use of found objects.
1963
Visits "The Popular Image", ICA (24 Oct.-23.Nov.), the first London overview of American Pop Art.
1964
Gives up his job as a pawnbroker's assistant to concentrate on sculpture.
1965
Tutors at the Maidstone School of Art. The Arts Council selected two screenprints for its "New Prints 2" show. Additionally, his storage unit burned down, destroying several objects.
1966
Starts working with Morris Singer Foundry (London). With the support of gallerist Robert Fraser Barker realizes his first works in chrome-plated bronze. Fraser includes Barker's Van Gogh's Chair 1966 in a group show with Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and others. Barker's exhibit wins him instant fame, invitations to show internationally follow soon afterwards.
1968
First one-man show at the Robert Fraser Gallery utilising a broad spectrum of metals.
1969
Robert Fraser closes his gallery. Barker is now represented by the Hannover Gallery.
1970
The Tate Gallery, London, purchases his work Splash (1967).
1971
After a visit to the Louvre makes Chained Venus and Roped Venus (destroyed), his first references to classical sculpture, with which he becomes preoccupied.
1987
With Venus Escargot Barker returns to the classical theme.
1990
The use of the Venus head continues.
1998
The production of 43 works heralds a creative outburst which will last for two years. Continues to reference classical sculpture.
2002
A catalogue raisonné of his work is published.
Solo Exhibitons
2009
Clive Barker: Pop Now!, Whitford Fine Art, London.
2006
Clive Barker: Recent Works, Whitford Fine Art, London.
2000
Clive Barker: Recent Work, Whitford Fine Art, London.
1994
Works on Paper, Independent Gallery, London.
1987
Clive Barker: Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, touring exhibition.
1985
Clive Barker: Boxes, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton.
1983
Clive Barker: War Heads, Imperial War Museum, London.
1981
Clive Barker: Sculpture, Drawings and Prints, Retrospective Exhibition, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, touring exhibition.
1978
Clive Barker: 12 Studies of Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon: 3 Studies of Clive Barker, Felicity Samuel Gallery with Robert Fraser, London.
1974
Clive Barker: Heads and Chariots, Anthony d' Offay, London.
1969
Clive Barker, Hanover Gallery, London.
1968
Clive Barker: Recent Works, Robert Fraser Gallery, London
Group Exhibitons
2008
Post-War to Pop, Whitford Fine Art, London; Triptyque: Art Contemporain Angers, Angers, France; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London. Supermarket Pop: Art & Consumerism, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton; Unpopular Culture Grayson Perry selects from the Arts Council Collection, touring exhibition, UK.
2007
Pin Up: Pop Art and Popular Culture, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton.
2005
British Pop, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao.
2004
Pop Art UK: British Pop Art 1956-1972, the Galleria Civica and the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena; Art & the 60's. This was Tomorrow, Tate Britain, London.
2001
Pop Art: U.S. / U.K. Connections 1956 - 1966, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
2000
Things: Assemblage, Collage and Photography since 1935, Norwich Gallery, Norwich; D'Après l'Antique, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
1999
A Cabinet of Curiosities from the Collections of Peter Blake, Morley Gallery, London; Portrait Collection of Mr Chow, Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris.
1998
Twin Images, The Fine Art Society, London; 30th Anniversary of Mr Chow: Portrait Collection, Pace Wildenstein, Beverly Hills and Mayor Gallery, London; Modern British Art, Tate Gallery, Liverpool.
1997
Pop Art, Norwich Castle Museum, Norwich; The Berardo Collection, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Sintra; Les Sixties: Great Britain and France 1962 - 1973, The Utopian Years, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Brighton; The Pop '60s: Transatlantic Crossing, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon.
1996
Works on Paper, Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, Glasgow.
1995
Works on Paper, Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, London; British Surrealism 1935 - 1995, England & Co., London; Post-War to Pop, Whitford Fine Art, London; Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, Koriyama City Museum of Art, Fukushima, touring exhibition.
1994
Worlds in a Box, City Art Centre, Edinburgh, touring exhibition; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
1993
Declarations of War: Contemporary Art from the Collection of the Imperial War Museum, Kettles Yard, Cambridge; The Sixties Art Scene in London, Barbican Art Gallery, London; The Fab Year Show, Independent Editions, Business Design Centre, London; The 1960's, England & Co., London; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Drawing Towards Sculpture, Isis Gallery and Art Institute, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex; Art in Boxes, England & Co., London; Reflet-Restitution. La Sculpture pop et hyperréaliste, Abbaye Saint-André, centre d'art contemporain, Meymac; No More Heroes Anymore : Contemporary Art from the Imperial War Museum, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh ; Imitation Goods, Gilmour Gallery, London; The Portrait Now, National Portrait Gallery, London; Art in Boxes, Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham.
1992
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Pop Art, Galerie Michael, Darmstadt; Summer Exhibition, Redfern Gallery, London; Summer Exhibition, The Piccadilly Gallery, London.
1991
Objects for the Ideal Home: The Legacy of Pop Art, Serpentine Gallery, London; Pop Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, touring exhibition.
1990
Birch and Conran, London.
1988
Summer Selection: Contemporanea, Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York; Contemporay Portraits, Flowers East, London; Modern British Sculpture from the Collection, Tate Gallery, Liverpool.
1987
British Pop Art, Birch and Conran Fine Art, London; 19de Biënnale Monumenta, Openluchtmuseum voor beeldhouwkunst Middelheim, Antwerp; Pop Art U.S.A. - U.K.: American and British Artists of the 60's in the 80's, Odakyu Grand Gallery, Tokyo, touring exhibition.
1986
Forty Years of Modern Art 1945 - 1985, Tate Gallery, London; Faces for the Future. New Twentieth Century Acquisitions at the National Portrait Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, London; The Flower Show. An Exhibition on the Theme of Flowers in Twentieth Century British Art, Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, Hanley, touring exhibition; Design, Redfern Gallery, London; Contrariwise: Surrealism and Britain 1930 - 1986, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, touring exhibition.
1985
The Irresistible Object: Still Life 1600 - 1985, Leeds City Art Galleries; Visual Aid Print and Original Works, Royal Academy of Arts, London.
1984
Nine Works of Art from the Contemporary Collection of Wolverhampton Art Gallery, The Mayor Gallery, London; British Pop Art, Robert Fraser Gallery, London; Barrier 1977 - 80 and Contemporary Acquisitions, Imperial War Museum, London; Look! People, St. Paul's Gallery, Leeds and National Portrait Gallery, London.
1983
Black White, Robert Fraser Gallery, London; Small is Beautiful. Part 3, Angela Flowers Gallery, London; Art-Hats, Harlekin Art, Wiesbaden, Germany.
1982
Kunst der Klassischen Moderne bis zur Gegenwart, Galerie Kunsthandlung Roche, Bremen; Milestones in Modern British Sculpture, Mappin Art Gallery, London.
1981
13a Biennale Internazionale del Bronzetto Piccola Scultura, Padua; British Sculpture in the 20th Century, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.
1980
Nudes, Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
1979
Furniture Sculpture, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; ....A Cold Wind Brushing the Temple. An Exhibition of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture purchased by George Melly for the Arts Council of Great Britain, Arts Council of Great Britain, touring exhibition.
1978
The Museum of Drawers by Herbert Distel, Kunsthaus, Zürich.
1977
British Artists of the 60's, Tate Gallery, London; Kinsman Morrison Gallery, London
1976
Schuhwerke, Kunsthalle Nürnberg Nuremberg; Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London; Small is Beautiful. Part 2: Sculpture, Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
1975
Desenhos Britânicos Contemporâneos, XIII Bienal de São Paulo; Der Ausgesparte Mensch, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim.
1974
Zehn Jahre Baukunst, Baukunst-Galerie, Cologne; Small is Beautiful, Angela Flowers Gallery, London.
1973
11 Englische Zeichner, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, touring exhibition; Kunstler aus England, Baukunst-Galerie, Cologne.
1972
XI Premi Internacional Dibuix Joan Miró, Barcelona; Third British International Print Biennale, Bradford City Art Gallery and Museums, Cartwrith Hall, Bradford; British Figurative Art Today and Tomorrow, Nova-London Fine Art, Copenhagen; Clive Barker/David Oxtoby/Norman Stevens/Michael Vaugham/David Versey/Roy Tunnicliffe/John Loker, Studio 4, London.
1971
Der Geist des Surrealismus, Baukunst-Galerie, Cologne.
1970
Metamorphose de l'Objet. Art et anti-art 1910 - 1970, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, touring exhibition; Kelpra Prints, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, London; British Sculpture out of the Sixties, ICA, London; Alice, Waddington Galleries, London; 3 ∞: New Multiple Art, Whitchapel Art Gallery, London.
1969
Poetic Image, Hanover Gallery, London; Pop Art, Hayward Gallery, London; Young and Fantastic,
ICA, London; Play Orbit, Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, Flint and ICA, London.
1968
Contemporary British Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; British Artists: 6 Painters, 6 Sculptors, an exhibition circulated by the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mostra Mercato d'Arte Contemporanea, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; Tout Terriblement Guillaume Apollinaire, ICA, London.
1967
Salon de la Jeune Peinture, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Works from 1956 to 1967 by Clive Barker, Peter Blake, Richard Hamilton, Jann Haworth and Colin Self, Robert Fraser Gallery, London; Ventures, Arts Council of Great Britain, Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, touring exhibition; Tribute to Robert Fraser, Robert Fraser Gallery; Nuove Tecniche d'Immagine, Sesta BIennale Internazionale d'Arte, San Marino; Drawing and Prints, Robert Fraser Gallery, London; Englische Kunst, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich.
1966
New Idioms, Robert Fraser Gallery, London.
1965
New Prints 2, Art Council of Great Britain, touring exhibition.
1964
About Round, Leeds University, Leeds; 118 show, Kasmin Gallery, London.
1962
Young Contemporaries, RBA Galleries, London.