ANNE DESMET RA Towards the Light
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Reaching for the Moon 2018
Manhattan Night 2017
Linocut, wood engraving & lithograph prints collaged on paper under convex glass, 33 cm diameter. Unique piece
Wood engraving on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 10
ANNE DESMET RA Towards the Light
LONG & RYLE 4 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4PX t : +44 (0) 20 7834 1434 • e: gallery@long-and-ryle.com www.longandryle.com • tues – fri 10 - 5:30 sat 11- 2 left: G re e n G a l l e r i e s 2 0 1 6 casein on birch panel 30 × 37 cm
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Fa n Va u l t 2 0 1 6 Wood engraving on Japanese paper 16 Ă— 16.7 cm. Edition: 30
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Towa rd s t h e L i g h t 2 0 1 8 Reduction wood engraving on Gampi Vellum paper 58.4 Ă— 12.6 cm. Edition: 25
Anne Desmet RA: Towards the Light Introduction by Jennifer Scott
A staircase swirls upwards at a seemingly impossible angle, its form and setting predominantly enveloped in darkness. Above it we encounter the same scene three more times, each imprint lighter than the first as the artist reveals more detail. Towards the Light, a reduction wood engraving, appropriately lends its title to this exhibition of over 40 works by Anne Desmet, all created over the course of the past 3 years. Here, Desmet places the viewer in the role of witness, standing at the foot of repeating images of the Gainsborough’s House Museum staircase. The first is full of inky blackness and suspense; each subsequent view becomes lighter, revealing more, and leading us to the solution of the riddle - lightness out of darkness - through a simple chandelier suspended from the ceiling, and an artist in complete mastery of her craft. The great paradox of the printing process is that the more that is removed from the surface, the more the scene can divulge itself to the viewer, giving the delicious impression that somehow the minutiae were always there, waiting to be ‘carved’ free and printed for our delectation. Seeing four versions of this one scene together in one work is a reminder of the vulnerability, and theatricality, of printmaking. Once the surface has been cut, the artist can’t change her mind. Something so painstaking, a labour of love, can be transient and fleeting, with layer upon layer of obfuscation removed, and no means of taking a step backwards once the process is in play. In the 18th century, the Venetian artist Canaletto enchanted his patrons with ‘capricci’ (deriving
from the Italian for ‘the leaping of a goat’): fanciful scenes of impossible architecture which melded the real with the imagined. He would take wellknown landmarks and experiment with perspective and form to create vistas of the imagination. Desmet’s compositions do the same, as she relishes the freedom of not needing to transcribe exact architectural details, and instead creates poetic renderings with an echo of truth. In each of the works in this selection, the tone is set by the shape and effect of light. As Desmet herself says, her themes ‘…are intended to represent something universal: the way light brings life to a subject – whether animate or inanimate; the way apparently permanent structures are poignantly prone to the ravages and redevelopments of time, weather and human intervention. I am interested, too, in what our buildings tell us about mankind’s great aspirations, follies, passions and humour.’ The parts that were cut away from stained blocks evade ink as they radiate from the midst of complex scenes, bringing intense light to the cement reconstruction that is Eton Chapel’s ceiling in Fan Vault. Our eyes are fooled into perceiving multiple colours in RA Revolution when in fact Desmet has drawn and painted the lithograph in only black, red and blue. But this blue of such brightness in the sky and windows, when contrasted with the starched whiteness against black shadow, somehow creates a rainbow out of the Royal Academy’s imposing façade. Columns and chimneys soar into the sky, jockeying for position in Urban Jungle, the pale brown wash of sky above serving as a disheartening reminder
of the futility of their struggle, since their own forms on earth are brighter than the skyline to which they strive. And in Looking Up, past and present merge where architectural fragments from Desmet’s residency at Eton College share the stage with clouds carved long ago on much-loved wooden blocks. These clouds, she states, simply ‘seemed to want to be here’.
as the imprinted memory of objects meticulously carved. This is the magic of printmaking in Desmet’s hands, where artworks fluidly cross the boundaries between mediums, becoming at once carvings, sculptures, concepts, interiors, exteriors, ceramics, tiles, found objects, designs; the ghosts of original drawings, all captured, tamed and suspended in frames.
This ability to listen to the needs and the will of her created objects as they ‘tell her’ that they want to be re-used in a certain composition epitomises Desmet’s integrity. Forms and ideas find their own place within her art as she allows happenstance to have its way, for instance in revisiting an image from her childhood after rediscovering a once-lost postcard (End of Empire). In her most recent body of work, created in 2018 with a seeming surge of energy, Desmet’s playfulness comes to the fore with irrepressible confidence. Red telephone boxes fly upwards (In Search of New Worlds), vying for speed with the Chrysler building and a Hawksmoor church, and in Oculi the Pantheon’s opening is repeated again and again, like an omniscient eye, watching the inevitable trajectory of the sun.
But where are we, the inhabitants of this multifaceted, light-seeking world? The makers of the structures? The users of the telephone boxes? The devourers of art? Are we camouflaged in shards of a mirror, salvaged from scrap, our own startled eyes reflecting back from behind a minute skyscraper? Or are we hidden deep within the buildings, steering them like rockets towards a hope-filled horizon? Ah no, there we are, in Reaching for the Moon - a tiny, teetering, timeless human form, balanced on a splayed ladder fixed with bright white points at its precarious base in a convex world. We stretch and clutch, wondering at what we have seen and learned and at what might be next for this exquisite artist; for art; for us all.
Desmet was elected as a Member of the Royal Academy in 2011. In the 2018 Summer Exhibition her work was displayed near Young Academician by Yinka Shonibare MBE. The pairing is apt, not only because Shonibare’s sculpted figure holds aloft a pile of books emblazoned with the names of the female Academicians (including, of course, Desmet’s own name), but also because Desmet’s works are as much sculptures as works on paper, functioning
Jennifer Scott is The Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, London www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
I n S e a r c h o f N ew Wo r l d s 2 0 1 8 Linocut & wood engraving prints collaged on paper under convex glass, 33 cm diameter. Unique piece
Three Ages Past 2018 Wood engraving, lithograph & monotype prints collaged on paper under convex glass, 28 cm diameter. Unique piece
Babel Moon 2018 Wood engraving, solarplate & monotype prints collaged on paper under convex glass, 33 cm diameter. Unique piece
Babel Ghosts 2018 Wood engraving & monotype prints collaged on paper under convex glass, 28 cm diameter. Unique piece
S c u l p t u r e G a rd e n 2 0 1 8 Linocut, lithograph & wood engraving prints & found papers collaged on paper under convex glass, 33 cm diameter. Unique piece
Inside Outside 2018 Linocut, wood engraving & monotype prints & found paper collaged on paper under convex glass, 28 cm diameter. Unique piece
S e e m s L i ke H e ave n 2 0 1 8 Linocut, lithograph & monotype prints on paper collaged on & under convex glass, 33 cm diameter. Unique piece
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Into the Blue 2018 Linocut, wood engraving & monotype prints & Italian postage stamp (detail) collaged on paper under convex glass, 20.3 cm diameter Unique piece
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P i s a : Towa r d s E ve n i n g 2 0 1 6 Stone lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 19 Ă— 27 cm. Edition: 25
Italian Light 2018 Lithograph, wood engraving & monotype prints on paper collaged under convex glass, 28 cm diameter. Unique piece
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Echoes of Palmyra 2018 Wood engraving & monotype prints on paper collaged on glazed ceramic bowl 7.7 × 7.5 × 3.3 cm. Unique piece
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Tiny Babel 2018 Wood engraving prints on paper collaged on pottery fragment 2.5 × 4.3 × 0.5 cm. Unique piece
B a b e l Towe r R ev i s i t e d 2 0 1 8 Solarplate, linocut & wood engraving prints collaged on paper under convex glass 46 cm diameter. Unique piece
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C r o ss i n g t h e C o u r t ya r d 2 0 1 6 Wood engraving on Zerkall paper 12 Ă— 16 cm. Edition: 25
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Approaching Storm 2016 Wood engraving on Gampi Vellum paper 8.3 Ă— 11.6 cm. Edition: 30
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Looking Up 2016
Oculi 2018
11 wood engravings on Gampi Vellum paper 10 Ă— 64 cm. Edition: 20
Wood engraving, linocut & stencil on Gampi Vellum paper 19.5 Ă— 30.5 cm. Edition: 15
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Towe r s & Tu d o r C h i m n eys 2 0 1 6 Wood engraving on Japanese paper 13 Ă— 10.8 cm. Edition: 30
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Library Dome 2016 Wood engraving on Japanese paper 14 Ă— 11.5 cm. Edition: 30
Urban Jungle 2016
Rotunda x 20 2016
4-plate lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 73.6 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 25
4-plate lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 73.6 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 25
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Library with Red Sky 2016 Wood engraving print & found paper collaged onto pottery shard 6 × 8.5 × 1.5 cm. Unique piece
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Two L o n d o n C h u r c h e s 2 0 1 8 Wood engraving prints on paper collaged on two mirrored glass shards 5 × 4 × 0.3 cm. Unique piece
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L o n d o n L a n d m a r ks 2 0 1 8 Wood engraving prints & found paper collaged on slate, 8.2 × 7.5 × 0.4 cm Unique piece
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G r e e k Fr a g m e n t 2 0 1 8 Detail from 1000-Greek-drachma banknote & wood engraving prints on paper collaged on oyster shell, 7.5 × 7.9 × 2.2 cm. Unique piece
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End of Empire 2018 Wood engraving & pochoir on Gampi Vellum paper 13 × 17.4 cm. Edition: 30
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Nearly Gone 2018 Wood engraving & linocut prints on paper collaged onto 15 glass mosaic tiles 10.8 × 6.5 × 0.4 cm. Unique piece
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RA Metamorphosis I 2017 Lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 28.5 × 10 cm. Edition: 30
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RA Metamorphosis II 2017 Lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 28.5 × 10 cm. Edition: 30
R A R evo l u t i o n 2 0 1 7 Stone lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 30.5 Ă— 42 cm. Edition: 35
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Manhattan Sun 2017 Reduction wood engraving & stencil on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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M a n h a t t a n Tw i l i g h t 2 0 1 7 Wood engraving & stencil on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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Manhattan Stars 2017 Reduction wood engraving on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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M a n h a t t a n N i g h t b e c o m e s D ay 2 0 1 7 Wood engraving on Japanese paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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Manhattan Sky 2017 Wood engraving & stencil on Japanese paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 30
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Manhattan Rain 2017 Wood engraving & linocut on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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Manhattan Storm 2017 Wood engraving & linocut on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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M a n h a t t a n S n ow 2 0 1 7 Wood engraving & 2 linocut blocks on Japanese paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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M a n h a t t a n S n ow o n S n ow 2 0 1 7 2-block linocut on Zerkall paper 19 Ă— 20.3 cm. Edition: 20
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G l a ss h o u s e K a l e i d o s c o p e 2 0 1 7 Linocut, wood engraving & found papers collaged on paper under convex glass, 46 cm diameter. Unique piece
ANNE DESMET RA RE 1964 1983-86 1987-88 1988 1989-90 1991 1998-2013 2003-7 2008 2010-12 2010-19 2011 2018
Born in Liverpool, UK BA Fine Art, Oxford University Printmaking Postgraduate Diploma, Central School of Art, London Elected Associate (ARE) Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Fellow (RE) 1991 British School at Rome Scholarship in Printmaking MA Fine Art, Oxford University; elected to Society of Wood Engravers (SWE) Editor of Printmaking Today magazine External examiner, BA & MA Fine Art, Aberystwyth University Elected Member of Royal West of England Academy (RWA) External examiner, FdA & BA Fine Art, Kingston College Honorary Fellow/Creative Associate, Aberystwyth University Elected Member of Royal Academy of Arts (RA) Honorary Fellowship, Worcester College, Oxford University
Awards & Prizes 2015 Honorary Member: Printmakers Council, UK 2014 Juror’s Prize: Footprint Exhibition, Connecticut, USA Prize: Lessedra Mini Print Exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria 2013, 99 Prizes: Mini Print Biennial, Connecticut, USA 2012 Grants for the Arts Award: Arts Council England 2011 V&A Acquisition Prize: The Discerning Eye, London Intaglio Printmaker & SWE Prizes: Bite National Print Exhibition, London 2010 London Original Print Fair Award: RA Summer Exhibition 2010, 07 Judges’ Awards: Mini Print Triennale, Lahti Art Museum, Finland 2009 Honourable Mention: 7th Mini Print Biennial, Connecticut, USA 2008, 05, 04 SWE Awards: Originals, London 2007 Zenith Collection & SWE Prizes: Originals07, London 2007, 96, 89 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Awards Canada 2006 Rachel Reckitt Award: SWE Annual Exhibition, touring UK 2004 Birgit Skiold Memorial Trust Printmaking Award 2000 Exhibition Prize: Mini-Print International, Vitoria, Brazil 1998 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award USA Art Review Award: National Print Exhibition, London Museum Purchase Prize: Grafinnova, 7th Open Print Triennial, Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, Finland 1997 Southern Arts Award S Dawson Taylor Award: RWA Open Print, Bristol 1995 Artist’s medal: Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia 1994 G Tuffrey Memorial Award: RWA Open Print, Bristol 1992 Prize: South Bank Picture Show, London 1991 Rooks Rider Prize: A View of the New, Royal Overseas League, London 1987 Lithography Prize: PMC National Print Exhibition, Royal Festival Hall, London Public & Corporate Collections UK Ashmolean Museum; Whitworth Art Gallery; V&A; National Art Library; British Museum; British Library; Museum of London; London Metropolitan Archive; RA; RWA; Fitzwilliam Museum; Pallant House; Royal Mint Museum; Royal Collection, Windsor Castle; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Bradford Museums & Art Galleries; School of Art Museum, Aberystwyth University; Worcester & Balliol Colleges, Oxford; Eton College; Kent University; University of the West of England; Manchester University Library; Manchester Metropolitan University; Slaughter & May, London; National Grid PLC; Art Review
Public & Corporate Collections Worldwide Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Chamalieres, France; Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, & Lahti Art Museum, both Finland; Franciscan Museum & Art Gallery Gorica, Livno, Bosnia Herzegovina; Gibraltar Government Art Collection; Museo della Stampa, Mondovi & Museo Civico, Cremona, both Italy; Municipal Art Gallery, Lodz, Poland; Museu de Arte do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil; Whangarei Art Museum, Wharepuke, New Zealand; Guanlan Print Museum, Nanjing Art Gallery, Heilongjiang Provincial Museum of Art, Yinchuan Museum of Art, all in China; IMG Corporate, New York & Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, both USA Residencies 2016 2013 2007-8 2003 1990
Eton College, Berkshire The Lookout, Aldeburgh Beach, Suffolk Creative Partnerships (Arts Council) residency at Lauriston Primary School, East London Grafisch Museum, Groningen, Netherlands Oriel 31, Newtown, Powys (North Wales Arts)
Solo Exhibitions (since 1993) 2018, 15 Long & Ryle, London 2018 Gainsborough’s House Museum, Sudbury, Suffolk 2017 Holborne Museum, Bath 2016, 14 Editions Ltd, Liverpool 2016, 1992 Royal Overseas League, London 2016 Eton College, Berks 2015 Wirral Festival of Firsts, Hoylake 2013 Aldeburgh Lookout, Suffolk 2012 Anne Desmet – Olympic Metamorphoses, touring: Pitzhanger Manor Gallery & RA Library, both London; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Bluecoat Arts & Editions Ltd, both Liverpool 2012, 11, 10, 08, 06, 04 Hart Gallery, London 2012 West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield, Yorks 2009, 1995, 93 Godfrey & Watt, Harrogate 2008-10 Anne Desmet – Urban Evolution, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester & touring: School of Art Museum, Aberystwyth; Mercer; Gainsborough’s House, Suffolk; Liverpool Hope University; UCLAN, Preston; RWA; Cartwright Hall, Bradford 2002, 00, 1998, 96, 94, 92, 91 Duncan Campbell Fine Art, London 1998-99 Anne Desmet – Towers & Transformations, major retrospective, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford & touring: School of Art Museum, Aberystwyth; Holburne Museum, Bath; Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University; Mercer; Millais Gallery, Southampton Institute; Oriel 31, Powys; & Whitworth 1995 Anne Desmet – Wood Engraver, Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia Two-Four Person Exhibitions (since 1993) 2018 RA250 Project, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Anne Desmet RA & Friends, Kevis House Gallery, Petworth 2017 Wood engravings: Gwen Raverat & Today’s Artists, Watts Gallery, Surrey 2016 Three Royal Academicians, Gustavo Bacaristas Gallery, Gibraltar 2014 Wood Engraving – Developing the Medium, Brook Gallery, Devon Across the Pond, Manhattanville College, NY, USA 2012-14 Sense of Soane, Pitzhanger Manor, London & Aberystwyth University 2013 Xilografia d’Oltremanica, Museum of Printing, Mondovi, Italy 2011 Of Time & Place, A & A Gallery, Richmond, Surrey 2008 3 Liverpool Printmakers, Editions Ltd, Liverpool 2003/4 Rediscovering Rembrandt, & Anne Desmet, Whitworth, Manchester
C h a p e l Towe r 2 0 1 6 Wood engraving on Gampi Vellum paper 15.7 × 3.1 cm. Edition: 30
2002 2001 2000 1999 1996 1993
De Ploeg print gallery, Groningen, Netherlands Urban Evolution, Manhattan Graphics Center, New York, USA Espaco Cultural Yazigi International, Vitoria, Brazil FourSight, Royal Over-Seas League, London Printing from Wood, Artmonsky Arts, London Two Wood Engravers, Printworks Gallery, Colchester Three Women Engravers, Barbican Centre, London
Selected Group Shows (brief summary) Since 1990, Anne Desmet has shown regularly in the RA Summer Exhibition & in numerous selected group shows worldwide. In 2018 her works were shown in Chinese & British Relief Prints, Heilonjiang Museum, China. In 2017 she was an invited artist in Dialogue in Yinchuan, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, China. In 2003 she was an invited artist in Ink from Wood: Two Traditions at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Connecticut, USA, exhibiting alongside Chuck Close, Alex Katz & Antonio Frasconi. In 2003/4 she curated an exhibition of historical prints & some of her own works, all from the Whitworth Art Gallery’s collection, as a special feature of its exhibition: Rediscovering Rembrandt. In 2008-9, Tower of Babel collages by Desmet featured in the British Museum’s Babylon: Myth & Reality exhibition. Desmet has been an invited selector for 37 national & international open print shows. Selected Publications Anne Desmet – An Italian Journey (published by the RA); Primary Prints by Anne Desmet; Handmade Prints by Anne Desmet & Jim Anderson; Printmakers: The Directory by Anthony Dyson & Anne Desmet (all A&C Black); Anne Desmet RA – Time Sequences (Long & Ryle); Sense of Soane: Emily Allchurch, Anne Desmet, Catrin Huber (Arrivata Publishing); Anne Desmet – Olympic Metamorphoses (Hart Gallery); Anne Desmet – Urban Evolution (Whitworth/Hart Gallery); Anne Desmet – Towers & Transformations (Ashmolean); Printmaking – A Contemporary Perspective by Paul Coldwell (Black Dog); Owain Glyndwr’s Court (Gregynog Press); Architectural Drawing by David Dernie (Laurence King Ltd); The Printmaking Bible by Ann D’Arcy Hughes & Hebe Vernon-Morris (Chronicle Books); Monoprinting by Jackie Newell & Dee Whittington; Collecting Original Prints by Rosemary Simmons; Relief Printmaking by Ann Westley; Printmakers’ Secrets by Anthony Dyson; Drawing Matters by Jane Stobart; Who’s Who (all A&C Black/Bloomsbury); Private Views: Artists Working Today by Judith Palmer (Arts Council); An Artist’s Handbook by Ray Smith (Dorling Kindersley); An Engraver’s Globe by Simon Brett (Primrose Hill Press); Engravers Two (Silent Books); Wood Engraving & the Woodcut in Britain by James Hamilton (Barrie & Jenkins). Features in: The Times; Guardian; Independent; Evening Standard; Financial Times; Big Issue; RA Magazine; House & Garden; Oxford Times; Printmaking Today; Parenthesis, Art Review; Artists & Illustrators; Art Monthly; Jackdaw; Art & Cities; Print Quarterly; Burlington; Art Quarterly; Kunst & Unterricht (Germany); Gibraltar Chronicle; The Times (Malta); Grafik Nytt (Sweden); Journal of the Print World (USA) Commissions Gainsborough’s House Museum, British Library, British Museum; National Gallery; V&A; Royal Mint; Sotheby’s; Worcester & Balliol Colleges, Oxford; Gregynog Press; St Michael & All Angels Church & Queen Elizabeth Children’s Hospital, both East London; National Grid; The Times; OUP; Central School of Art, London; British Association of Paediatric Surgeons; Abbey School, Tewkesbury; many private commissions Artist’s Statement Anne Desmet specializes in wood engraving, linocut, lithography & collage. Her collages are made from multiple fragments cut from sample printings of her engraving & lino blocks & other materials such as pen/ pencil drawing, gold leaf & street map fragments. These are glued onto diverse surfaces including archival card, painted wood, seashells, mirrored & convex glass, ceramic tiles & bowls, stones & roofing slate to create unique works. Her subject matter pulls in two directions: one is essentially topographical yet subject to metamorphoses, while the other is concerned with intuitive architectural fantasies, urban myths & histories of urban destruction & regeneration such as the biblical Tower of Babel. Desmet aims to suggest the timeless solidity & ideas of human aspiration, humour, hubris & folly that architectural forms can convey, as well as their impermanence & vulnerability
L e a n i n g Towe r 2 0 1 6 Stone lithograph on Somerset Satin paper 51.5 Ă— 30 cm. Edition: 25
LONG & RYLE