Stephen Farthing studied at St Martin’s School of Art, London (1969-73) before taking his Masters Degree in Painting at the Royal College of Art, London (1973-76). Here he was awarded an Abbey Major Scholarship, taking him to The British School at Rome for a year from 1976. .
His teaching career began as a Lecturer in Painting at Canterbury College of Art (1977-79), after which he was a Tutor in painting at the Royal College of Art, London from 1980 to 1985. He went on to become Head of Painting (1985-87) and Head of Department of Fine Art (1987-89) at West Surrey College of Art and Design. From 1990 he was Ruskin Master at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford until 2000.
Stephen Farthing has exhibited extensively in one man shows since his first solo exhibition held at the Royal College of Art Gallery, London in 1977. His work, representing Britain, was shown at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1989, leading to many further solo shows in the UK and abroad, including South America and Japan. He has also participated in many group exhibitions since 1975, including the John Moores Liverpool Exhibitions, in which he was a Prize Winner in 1976, 1980, 1982, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1997 and 1999. He was represented by The Edward Totah Gallery in London and New York until Edwards death in 1997.
Farthing was Artist in Residence at the Hayward Gallery, London in 1989. He was elected Royal Academician in 1998 and in 2000 was made an Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford. In 2000, Duckworth published his first book , The Intelligent Persons Guide to Modern Art, since then he has gone on to edit and write a number of essentially art historical texts mostly in relation to painting and drawing . He was executive director of the New York Academy of Art from September 2000 until August 2004 when he was appointed Rootstein Hopkins Research Chair of Drawing at the University of Arts London. He currently lives and works in Mexico City and London.
Recent Solo Exhibitions:
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank , London . UK
Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
National Museum of Art, Montevideo, Uruguay
The Minories Art Gallery, Colchester
Sloane Racotta Gallery, Mexico City
Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey
Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
City Museum, Montevideo, Uruguay
Otemae Centre for the Arts, Otemae University, Kansai, Japan
Mary Ogilvy Gallery, St Anne’s College, Oxford
Anne Berthoud Gallery, London, UK
British Council, Kyoto, Japan
Brantwood House, Cumbria, UK
Amagansett Applied Arts, New York
Purdy Hicks Gallery , London
West of England Academy , Bristol , UK
Royal Academy of Arts , London
Public Commissions:
2016
300 Anniversary Capability Brown , Painting for Milton Abbey , Milton Abbas , Dorset , UK
2014 -15
National Trust , Titian’s Ghosts , 3 paintings for the Great Staircase, a temporary installation for Ham House, Surrey , UK
2006
Aston Villa Football club , Mural for stadium, Aston, Birmingham , UK
2004
Cleveland Browns NFL, Browns Town Mural for stadium, Cleveland, Ohio
1988
Portrait of the past and present historians Eric Hobsbawm, Rodney Hilton, Sir Keith Thomas, Sir John Elliot, Lawrence Stone and Jean Thirsk (commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, London).
1988
Topographical painting of Dorset (commissioned by the Dorchester Hospital Trust) |
