My work has taken many directions and different lines of enquiry.
Seated I © Anthony Whishaw RA How has your work developed over the years? It led to many works relating to the landscape and forces of nature. Spending time in the Kent countryside from the early 1970s up until today opened up a window to nature and allowed me to feel very much in touch with the natural world. My marriage to sculptor Jean Gibson and the birth of my two daughters has led to many works with women, mothers and daughters as subjects. A box of ideas, thoughts and experiences opened up, which has informed much of my work until today. It was while living in Spain that I became influenced by the visual experiences of the country and fascinated by Spanish art, in particular, Goya, Picasso and Velazquez. While being born in London, my father worked in Sao Paolo, but with the outbreak of the war, I was evacuated to Cornwall, where I started to enjoy drawing.īeing awarded scholarships from the Royal College of Art and the Spanish Government enabled me to travel to Spain and gave me the confidence to be an artist in my own right rather than relying on the structure of art school.
Perhaps the first big change in my life was being brought over to the UK from Brazil at the age of 9 to go to school. These can be small experiences or major life events. Many things inform one’s work throughout life. Naked Seated Woman © Anthony Whishaw RA What have been the most significant changes in your own life? How have they informed your art today? I did have a website long before many other artists (my first one was created 15 years ago), but I have to credit my daughter Zoe for that. I’m not particularly well versed in how technology works as I’m of the older generation though I realise that it can help your work to be more widely seen. No matter how fancy the technology becomes, the art form has to have integrity and depth if it is to have any longevity. While technology does help in allowing work to be more easily accessible, in the end, the work has to stand up to scrutiny ideas have to be original and keenly thought through. The hardest thing for an artist is to create something unique. Do you think it's more challenging to be an artist these days or does technology make it easier to make a name for yourself?īeing an artist has always been, and always will be, challenging as it requires a lot of commitment. We were lucky to grab a few minutes with Whishaw to talk more about his career so far. Written by author Richard Davey and published by Beam Editions, the book will be the first time many of these works have been seen. His new book Works on Paper covers many aspects of his life: from his early figurative works and landscapes influenced by his time in Spain to his abstract interiors and observations of nature. In a world where art grabs headlines, and the likes of Grayson Perry, Banksy and Tracy Emin have become celebrities as they are artists, Anthony Whishaw is an increasingly rare kind of artist. He has been known to work on drawings and paintings for decades. Whishaw epitomises the idea of a quiet artist working in his studio day in, day out, completely undistracted. Among other achievements, some of his most significant career highlights include being elected as a Royal Academician in 1980, one of the highest accolades for any living artist, and a major exhibition in 1994 at The Barbican Centre. Over 70 years, Whishaw has exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.
In 1960, recognition came when the young artist appeared on the pioneering BBC TV arts programme Monitor, which featured rising stars of the day such as Melvin Bragg, John Berger and Ken Russell. Whishaw studied at the prestigious Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art in the mid-1950s. He is now one of the few artists from the original scene still in residence in the Royal Borough. While rising property prices during the 1960s forced many of the city’s artists to flee West London, Whishaw stayed, quietly continuing his work. In this respect, they championed the idea of 'live-work spaces' long before it became the fashionable concept it is today. Purchased in 1957 with his wife and fellow artist, Jean Gibson, the couple raised two daughters, Zoe and Phoebe, there. Yet the sheer variety of themes depicted makes it difficult to attribute it to any specific movement or style.įor over 70 years, Whishaw has lived and worked in the same home and studio, based in the heart of Kensington. One of the original artists of the Kensington and Chelsea art scene during the 1950s and 60s – once a hotbed for London creativity – Whishaw's work has the rare ability to shift effortlessly between abstract and figurative works.