Talk

Setting the Scene

30 March 2022, 7:00pm

The historic and modern art of wood engraving

Anne Desmet introduces “Scene through Wood: A Century of Modern Wood Engraving”, an Ashmolean Museum exhibition she curated to celebrate the centenary of the Society of Wood Engravers. Wood engraving is a historic printing technique with origins in England: developed by Newcastle naturalist Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). Wood engravings are notable for their fine detail and astounding tonal range. “Scene through Wood” offers a visual feast of these prints and celebrates the artists who made them, including Thomas Bewick, William Blake, Samuel Palmer, Lucien Pissarro, Naum Gabo, Eric Ravilious, M C Escher, Gertrude Hermes, Clare Leighton, Paul and John Nash, Henry Moore, David Gentleman, Peter Blake, Hilary Paynter and Anne Desmet.

Anne Desmet RA RE SWE was editor of Printmaking Today from 1998-2013. She is the author of seven books on printmaking and drawing. As an artist, she has had 50 solo exhibitions (including four museum retrospectives in the UK and Moscow); won over 40 national and international awards; has worked in museum collections worldwide; and commissioned works to include engravings for the British Museum, National Gallery, British Library, V&A, the Royal Mint and Sotheby’s. Desmet was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2011 and is only the third wood engraver ever elected to the RA. In 2018, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, for “distinction in the world of art”.

This talk has been rescheduled from its original date 24 February  2022.