March 2020 — May 2021

Illusions and Horizons: Anthony Whishaw RA

We are delighted to present this exhibition of paintings by English artist and Royal Academician Anthony Whishaw.  One of the original artists of the Kensington and Chelsea art scene in the 1950s and 60s, Whishaw has worked in the same studio in Kensington for nearly 70 years.

Whishaw was born in St Mary’s hospital ninety years ago (May 1930). Soon after his birth the family returned to Brazil where they lived until he was nine, returning to the UK at the start of World War II.

To celebrate his career, Imperial Health Charity has worked with the artist to select a group of works from his extensive collection to show just some of the many groups and ideas he has explored over the years.

Visions of different landscapes and a playful experimentation with perspective are a constant thread through Whishaw’s art; whilst he has never aligned with a particular style or movement, stating instead that ‘each painting and work on paper makes its own separate demands’, his work is largely focussed on ideas around experience and memory with the use of illusionary techniques being integral to much of his work. Using an extensive arsenal of approaches and materials, in his work we can see elements from nature as well as the man-made.

In this exhibition, perspectives are challenged using varying horizons as you might see from a ship during a long voyage at sea.  Whishaw explores the movement of water over a weir using the illusion of depth.  Other paintings explore more scientific notions, such as the suite of paintings relating to plastics and their molecular qualities – he considers them to be ‘self-portraits’; made themselves from the plastic-based paint, acrylic. 

Illusions and Horizons will travel to Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals over the course of the year.  It coincides with the exhibition With Spain In Mind at the Royal Academy of Arts, and the publication of a new book: Anthony Whishaw RA, Works on Paper by Richard Davey, published by Beam Editions.

To find out more about the artist, please visit: www.anthonywhishaw.com

All work exhibited here is available for sale, please contact [email protected] for further information.

Our thanks to Anthony Whishaw and his daughter Zoe Whishaw.