Richard Davey
Richard Davey's research focuses on the way in which faith, as a distinctive and counter-cultural worldview, is embodied and materialised within works of art. This has led to an interest in themes such as wonder, mystery, liminality, the sublime, beauty, colour, and sacred spaces and landscapes, and their rediscovery as vehicle of spiritual encounter, and valid academic discussion. As a writer Richard seeks to use the 'art text' as a space of research and proposition, in which ideas and knowledge are primarily shaped and gained by direct engagement with the visual image rather than secondary, or historical knowledge.
This reflects his interest in the validity of a sensory and intuitive epistemology. He is also concerned with the process and function of writing on art, in particular the way in which a practice of poetics rather than prose can provide a valid research tool, and also in the act of mutual engagement and response that can take place between text and image, and the new worlds of knowledge that can emerge from this encounter.
Published in his 90th year, Works on Paper is the definitive study of Anthony Whishaw’s drawings and works on paper. A contemporary of Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud and Bridget Riley, these rarely seen works reveal one of Britain’s great draughtsmen.
Educated at Chelsea School of Art and The Royal College of Art, the artist has spent a lifetime developing a distinctive vision uncompromised by commercial concerns and undistracted by an ever-changing art world.
Richard Davey’s essays allow those interested in contemporary British art and the practice of drawing to discover an artist who uses mark-making to shift between figuration and abstraction, landscape and interior, and narrative and memory.
‘Anthony Whishaw’s work exudes his deep love of life and curiosity for the world around him. Through his works on paper, this insightful and beautiful book captures the expression of this love in the intimate act of drawing.’
Rebecca Salter PRA, President of the Royal Academy of Arts, London