graduate school directory 2011/12 - Camberwell College of Arts ...

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fARTHING Stephen
PROfESSOR
BiOgrAPhY Professor Stephen Farthing is
the Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Drawing at the
University of the Arts London. He studied at
St Martins School of Art, then the Royal College
of Art. From 1990–2000 he was the Ruskin Master
of Drawing at the University of Oxford; from
2000–04 he was director of the New York Academy
of Art. He is currently writing Living Color
for Yale University Press with David Kastan and
editing The Sketchbooks of Jocelyn Herbert for Royal
Academy Publications. Farthing is involved
with a number of projects with overseas institu-
tions, which include: RMIT and Monash Universities
in Melbourne, The University of
Auckland and the National Art School, Sydney.
rESEArCh StAtEMENt All Farthing’s research
is geared towards establishing firstly a definition
or taxonomy of drawing, then a more complete
understanding of drawing as an aspect of general
literacy, and finally effective ways of teaching
drawing today.
In the first instance, most of Farthing’s research is
collections – and archive – based. For the most
part, this involves visiting collections then trying
to make sense of what he sees; this is done
by a mix of drawing and writing. Currently, he is
focusing on two primary areas; modern American
drawing and the drawings made after first
contact by prelit erate societies. At a more physical
level, he has been working with Aston Villa FC
exploring links between sports skills and drawing
skill acqui sition. In two projects developed
with the British Museum and Tate Gallery, London,
Farthing is using historical drawing collections
as a means of assessing the value of redrawing fine
examples as a part of the process of improving
participants’ drawing skills.
All projects are based on a process of working
with professional artists, students and schoolchildren
in qualitative assessment studies.
Finally, there is no strong separation between
Farthing’s activities as a painter and his research
as a Professor of Drawing; one feeds the other,
archival work on drawing informs his painting
just as practical research projects in drawing
serve to inform his painting.
SELECtED OUtPUtS AND AChiEVEMENtS
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011 Laboratory II, The Back Story, The Royal Academy,
London.
2010 The fourth Wall, Royal West of England Academy,
Bristol.
2010 The Drawn History of Painting, The Drawing Gallery,
Wales.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Drawing: Interpretation/Translation, Chinese University,
Hong Kong.
2011 British Art – Royal Academicians, Seongnam Art
Centre, Korea.
2010 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of
Art, London.
SELECTED PUBLISHED BOOKS
2010 Editor, ART: the Whole Story, Thames & Hudson.
2008 Editor, 501 Great Artists, UK: Barron’s Educational
Series; New Zealand: Penguin.
2007 Editor, 1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die,
UK: Cassel; Australia: ABC Books; USA: Rizzoli.
SELECTED CONfERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2011 Keynote Speaker, V&A Sackler Conference, on Artists
in Residence.
2011 Museum Art Schools: a paper delivered at the
Association of Art Historians’ Annual Conference,
University of Warwick.
2010 Keynote speaker, Drawing Out, 2010, RMIT, Melbourne,
Australia.
2008 ‘Performing Marks’, at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced
Research, University of Harvard, Cambridge MA.
fARTHING Stephen
Stephen farthing, The Knowledge: Mapping Cities, pen and ink on paper, 80 × 100 cm, 2010
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