ART & GALLERY ‘From Tonbridge to Tate’ honours Anthony Whishaw RA An exhibition at the Old Big School Gallery celebrated the career of renowned artist Anthony Whishaw, a Royal Academician and a former Tonbridge pupil (MH 1944-48).
There were also fascinating personal artefacts on display, such as school reports and letters he wrote to his family while he was a boarder. Anthony’s work, which deals with explorations of memory and experience, can be found in many prestigious international collections including The Royal Collection, the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, to name but a few. He also has many national awards to his name, gained over several decades from the 1950s onwards.
From Tonbridge to Tate, which showed at the OBS in Michaelmas Term 2021, honoured Anthony’s considerable achievements and contribution to contemporary British Art. Aged 91, and still painting daily, he made his name as one the key figures involved in the 1950s and 1960s Kensington and Chelsea art scene, an internationally known hotbed of London-based creativity. The exhibition included several works never previously shown publicly, such as cartoons of staff from his time at Tonbridge and some very early paintings from his school and college days.
James Priory, Headmaster, said: “We were thrilled to be able to celebrate the connection between Anthony’s life and vision as an artist and his time at Tonbridge as a schoolboy. His curiosity and wonder about the way in which we see things is an inspiration.”
