Launch at the Royal Academy of Arts
We were delighted to launch our new book Anthony Whishaw RA – Works on Paper at the Royal Academy last night as part of the artist’s latest exhibition ‘With Spain in Mind’. We like to say a big thank you to the RA team for being so generous and accommodating.
This is what the RA says about the exhibition:
‘This free display explores the powerful influence Spain has had on the work of Anthony Whishaw RA, from his first visit in 1951 through to the present day.
Consciously and unconsciously, Anthony Whishaw’s paintings, sketches and works on paper trace the impact and memory of the Spanish landscape and culture as well as his fascination with Spanish artists such as Velázquez, Goya and Picasso. Paintings in the show include the dramatic Bullfight with Falling Picador (1951) an early response to this savage ritual, abstracted landscapes which draw on Whishaw’s journeys across Spain through the high mountains of the sierras with their hill top towns, and intricate fractured interiors and figures inspired by Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656). The huge panoramic abstract canvas Matadero Municipal (1983-96) uses deep reds and orange to conjure an abattoir’s interior with motifs of a bull’s skull and brand markings. In contrast Whishaw’s very small paintings of the Reverie series recall an encounter with a solitary old woman who was the last person living in a crumbling, deserted Spanish village. The intensity of Whishaw’s experience of Spain has woven its way through his career for nearly 70 years.’
Left Author Richard Davey with the artist Anthony Whishaw at the private view.
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
176 pages, 165 colour photographs
Four colour lithographic print
Softcover with flaps, printed cover, section sewn, OTA bound, speciality papers throughout
24 × 28 cm / 9.45 × 11 inEnglish
Published by Beam Editions
ISBN 978-1-9162759-1-1
1st Edition 2019
