Born in London, England, he became a photo realist painter of subjects that he did in a mocking tone to rail against the seriousness with which people took them. He experimented with many mediums and styles including expressionist abstraction and figurative. He is known as a colorful character with many stories circulating about him including brief jail sentences for carousing and rages that led to mass destruction in his studio.
He studied at the Royal College of Art from 1954 to 1956 and moved to New York City in 1958. During the 1970s, he pursued a variety of styles and mediums and in the 1980s settled on the photo-real style, taking subject matter from such diverse sources as the Great Masters and postcards.
In 1984, he earned the Turner Prize for Art from the Tate Gallery. His home and studio have been on Long Island.