Anthony Whishaw, RA
(British, b. 1930)
Anthony Whishaw’s œuvre, spanning seven decades, defies categorisation. It is rich and diverse, monumental yet sensitive, thoughtful , often whimsical, and above all always fresh and unexpected.
He has never aligned himself with any particular group or school. As a painter he constantly seeks to surprise himself discovering unexpected images and experimenting with different visual languages through explorations of themes, scale and media.
He admits to working on many ideas concurrently, with some paintings being worked on over many years, a process that often leads to unique, unpredictable hybrids.
Anthony Whishaw was elected a Royal Academician in 1989 and has many awards to his name. His work is in numerous prestigious private, corporate and institutional collections including the Royal Academy of Arts, the Tate Gallery, Museo de Bahia in Brazil and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. He has taught at the Chelsea School of Art and Saint Martins.
Life Class, 1973
Ink and wash on paper
20 x 26 cm.
[Ref. AW2]
Judgement of Paris, 2005
acrylic and ink on paper
19 x 28 cm.
[Ref. AW3]
“I am involved with both depiction and abstraction, illusion/allusion and especially the idea of images micro seconds before perception.
Each painting and work on paper makes its own separate demands, from maverick impishness to the solemnity of Nature and its forces, and can range from the attempt to depict the depth of celestial space down to the microscopic mini space of electro-chemical activity in the brain.”
- A. Whishaw
Valley (Blue), 1977
acrylic on canvas
183 x 122 cm.
[Ref. AW1]
Valley (Blue) is part of a series inspired by the Catalonian Pyrenees and painted over a period of several years in the 1970s. It is the last available painting from the series as its sister pieces form part of the Government Art Collection.