Anne Desmet RA (born 14 June 1964) is a British artist who specializes in wood engravings, linocuts and mixed media collages. She has had three major museum retrospectives, received over 30 international awards, and her work is in museum collections and publications worldwide.
Anne Desmet was born in Liverpool and studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford and the Central School of Art and Design. [1] She obtained a master's degree and subsequently, a postgraduate diploma in printmaking. [2]
She was awarded a scholarship at the British School at Rome in 1989, [3] is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers [4] and a member of the Society of Wood Engravers. [5]
Desmet became a lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools, Ruskin School, Middlesex University and Leeds Polytechnic. [6] Desmet is also a former external examiner in fine art.
Desmet is curator of Scene through Wood - a Century of Wood Engraving, Ashmolean Museum and touring 2020. [7]
Desmet was elected as a Royal Academician on 26 May 2011. [1]
She is an Honorary Member of the Printmakers Council. [8]
Desmet was editor of Printmaking Today (1998-2013) – the quarterly journal of international graphic art.[ citation needed ]
Desmet is author of Anne Desmet: A Greek Journey (2019) published by RA Publishing Co. Ltd and Anne Desmet: An Italian Journey (2016) also published by RA Publishing Co. Ltd. Desmet is co-author of Handmade Prints (2000), author of Primary Prints (2010) and co-editor of Printmakers – the Directory (2006) all published by A&C Black. Other publications include: Anne Desmet RA: Towards the Light (Long and Ryle Gallery, 2015), Anne Desmet RA: Time Sequences (Long and Ryle Gallery, 2015), Anne Desmet: Olympic Metamorphoses (The Hart Gallery, 2011), Anne Desmet: Urban Evolution (Whitworth Art Gallery, 2008), Anne Desmet: Towers and Transformations – catalogue raisonné (Ashmolean Museum, 1998); Private Views: Artists working today (Serpent’s Tail, 2004); Wood Engraving and the Woodcut in Britain c.1890-1990 (Barrie & Jenkins, 1994); The Times, RA Magazine, Art Review, Art Monthly, Burlington, The Guardian and The New York Times. [9]
Desmet uses collage and print to depict the built environment. She is engaged with the evolution of the urban landscape and its testimony to the aspirations and experiences of humanity. Her abiding subjects are Italy, London and the Babel Tower. She uses the traditional printmaking techniques of wood engraving and lino-cutting but draws on a variety of materials to create distinctive layered collages. Her work ranges from small scale, detailed examinations to sweeping, often fantastical, panoramas viewed from a bird’s eye perspective. [7]
Sir Francis Seymour Haden PPRE, was an English surgeon, better known as an original etcher who championed original printmaking. He was at the heart of the Etching Revival in Britain, and one of the founders of the Society of Painter-Etchers, now the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, as its first president. He was also a collector and scholar of Rembrandt's prints.
Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or matrix of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively low pressure. By contrast, ordinary engraving, like etching, uses a metal plate for the matrix, and is printed by the intaglio method, where the ink fills the valleys, the removed areas. As a result, wood engravings deteriorate less quickly than copper-plate engravings, and have a distinctive white-on-black character.
Sir Francis Job "Frank" Short PPRE was a British printmaker and teacher of printmaking. He revived the practices of mezzotint and pure aquatint, while expanding the expressive power of line in drypoint, etching and engraving. Short also wrote about printmaking to educate a wider public and was President of the Royal Society of Painter Etcher & Engavers from 1910 to 1938. He was a member of the Art Workers' Guild and was elected Master in 1901.
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