Stephen Farthing RA - Museums of the World

As Bridgeman Copyright artist Stephen Farthing's new show Museums of the World at the Candida Stevens Gallery gets underway, we thought we would turn the spotlight on to the British painter's wonderful work.

 

About the artist

Professor Stephen Farthing (b. 1950) graduated with a BA in Fine Art from St Martin’s School of Art in London in 1973 and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London in 1976.

Stephen has exhibited extensively since he held his first solo exhibition at the Royal College of Art in 1977. He represented Britain at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1989, leading to many further solo shows around the world. He has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in which he was a Prize Winner on eight occasions.

About his work

Farthing's work as a painter sits midway between the conservative and the cutting edge, between classical and radical painting.

Professor Stephen Farthing is also a scholar and writer of art history books as well as being an artist, knowledge that he often references in his paintings. He once described his work in a 2005 interview, saying "I have dined with the devil in terms of becoming a modern artist. I have taken hold of history, tried to understand it—and then used and abused it".

 

About the exhibition

Museums of the World is a collection of 19 paintings produced between 2015-2017, of the interiors of public and private museums around the world. They were inspired by his involvement with British museums including the Royal Academy and the Ashmolean, and by years of travelling the world. The work combines a probing look at the history of collecting.

 

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