Born in Dulwich, educated Dulwich College from where he went to the Byam Shaw Art School studying under Ernest Jackson, Ricketts and Shannon. Awarded a travelling scholarship to Italy in 1930. Chapman lived and worked mostly in London, with intervals abroad and in Cornwall working with the emerging artists during the 1960's.
"Max Chapman is concerned with the forming of a construction of which the elements are not superimposed upon the surface of the canvas but come, so to speak, from the inside or grow out of the canvas....Every painting of his seems to be very deliberately and rationally considered, and that is why the combination of the intense melancholy greys, within the textured surface of his works, yields, the aura of a monument, impressive yet sensitive" Modern Art in London November 1960
Solo Exhibitions
1953
Storran Gallery, London
Leger Gallery, London
Gallery One, London
1960
Galeries Duncan, Paris
1961
New Vision Centre Gallery, London
Molton Gallery, London
Arts Faculty, Birmingham University
Prestons Gallery, Bolton
1968
The Leicester Galleries, London
Mixed Exhibitions 1960's
'Continuum' Grabowski Gallery, London
Galerie Walcheturm, Zurich
Commonwealth Bienale of Abstract Art, London
'Hampstead Artists 1943-64;' Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood
Forum Gallery, Bristol
'Trends' Manchester City Art Gallery
International' New Vision Centre
Drian Jubilee, Drian Gallery