ANNE DESMET, Artist

Please click on the images to view them in bigger size. Copyright art and photos © 1997- 2010 Anne Desmet

BIOGRAPHY

1964  Born in Liverpool, UK

1983-86  BA Fine Art, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art/Worcester College, Oxford

1987-88  Printmaking Postgraduate Diploma, Central School of Art & Design, London

1991  MA Fine Art, Oxford University

2004  Hart Gallery, London

2002, 2000, 98, 96, 94, 92 & 91  Duncan Campbell Fine Art, London

1998/9  Towers and Transformations: retrospective exhibition, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford & touring to School of Art & Museum, Aberystwyth; Holburne Museum, Bath; Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster University; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Millais Gallery, Southampton Institute; Oriel 31, Newtown, Powys; & Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester

1995  Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia

1995 & 93 Godfrey & Watt Gallery, Harrogate

1992  Royal Overseas League, London

Anne Desmet has shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition eleven times since 1990 and was amongst a small group of artists invited to exhibit their prints with those of Royal Academicians at the RA’s first Winter Print Fair, 2003. Since 1987, she has shown in over 250 selected group exhibitions worldwide. In 2003/4 a body of works by Desmet was exhibited alongside historical works, selected by Desmet, from the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester’s collection, as a special feature of a Whitworth exhibition: Rediscovering Rembrandt. 

Anne Desmet - Towers and Transformations, a complete catalogue raisonne of the artist's work, was published by Ashmolean Museum Publications to mark the solo retrospective exhibition (of the same title) at the Ashmolean Museum and touring UK. She is co-author of a book: Handmade Prints - An Introduction to Printmaking without a Press, published by A&C Black Publishers ltd (London), Davis (USA) and Haupt (Germany) in 2000 (reprinted in UK, USA and Germany in 2003). Since 1998, Desmet has been editor of Printmaking Today - the quarterly journal of international contemporary graphic art. Other publications featuring her work include: An Artist’s Handbook by Ray Smith (Dorling Kindersley); An Engraver’s Globe by Simon Brett (Primrose Hill Press); Relief Printmaking by Ann Westley (A&C Black ltd); Engravers Two (Silent Books); Wood Engraving and the Woodcut in Britain c1890 - 1990 by James Hamilton (Barrie & Jenkins); The Times; The Guardian; Art Review; Art Monthly; & Burlington Magazine. Desmet was interviewed about her work on Woman's Hour (Radio 4) in 1998 & 1996.

Ashmolean Museum (has purchased c.25 works); Victoria & Albert Museum; The National Art Library; British Library; British Museum; Fitzwilliam Museum; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Manchester University Library; Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia; Musee d'Art Contemporain of Chamalieres, France; Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, Finland; Museu de Arte do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil; Municipal Art Gallery, Lodz, Poland; Worcester College & Balliol College, Oxford; Slaughter & May, London; The National Grid PLC; IMG Corporate, New York, USA; Art Review; H M The Queen; H M The Queen Mother; The Duchess of York; private collections worldwide .

2004  SWE award, Originals04 Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

2000  Exhibition prize: Mini-Print International Show, Vitoria, Brazil

1999  Prize: International Miniature Prints 1999 exhibition, Connecticut GraphicArts Center, USA

1998  The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award, New York, USA

1998  The Art Review Award, National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

1997  Southern Arts Award for exhibition publicity for Ashmolean Museum Exhibition 1998

1997  The S Dawson Taylor Award for a wood engraving, RWA Open Print Exhibition, Bristol

1996  The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (Montreal Canada) Award for representational printmaking .

1995  Medal for most significant exhibition of the year - Ex Libris Museum, Moscow

1994  The Gordon Tuffrey Memorial Award, RWA Open Print Exhibition, Bristol

1992  Prize-winner, South Bank Picture Show, Royal Festival Hall, London

1991  Rooks Rider Prize, A View of the New Exhibition, Royal Overseas League, London

1991  Elected Member of the Society of Wood Engravers (SWE)

1990  Artist-in-Residence, Davies Memorial Gallery (Oriel 31), Newtown, Powys; funded by North Wales Arts 1989-90  British School at Rome Scholarship in Printmaking

1989  The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award for representational printmaking