Stephen Wiltshire
Stephen Wiltshire MBE, (born 24 April 1974) is a British architectural artist of West Indian ancestry who has been diagnosed with autism.[1][2] He is known for his ability to draw from memory a landscape after seeing it just once. He studied Fine Art at City & Guilds Art College. His work is now popular all over the world, and is held in a number of important collections.
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[edit] Early life
Wiltshire was born in London, England, in 1974 to West Indian parents.[1] Wiltshire was mute when young, and at the age of three he was diagnosed as autistic. The same year, his father died in a motorcycle accident.[1][2]
[edit] Education
At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London where he expressed interest in drawing. He began to communicate through his art. His teachers encouraged his drawing and with their aid Wiltshire learned to speak at the age of five.[2] At the age of eight, he started drawing imaginary post-earthquake cityscapes and cars. When he was ten, Wiltshire drew a sequence of drawings of London landmarks, one for each letter, that he called a "London Alphabet".[3]
In 1987, Wiltshire was part of a BBC programme The Foolish Wise Ones.[3] A collection of his works, named Drawings, was published that same year.[3]
Between 1995 and his graduation in 1998, Wiltshire attended the City and Guilds of London Art School[4] in Kennington, Lambeth, South London.
[edit] Career
Wiltshire can look at a target once and then draw an accurate and detailed picture of it. He once drew the whole of central London after a helicopter trip above it.[5] He also draws imaginary scenes, for example, St. Paul's Cathedral surrounded by flames.
Wiltshire's early books include Drawings (1987), Cities (1989), Floating Cities (1991), and Stephen Wiltshire's American Dream (1993). His third book—Floating Cities (Michael Joseph, 1991)—was number one on the Sunday Times best-seller list.
In 2003, there was a major retrospective of his work was held in the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham, London.
In May 2005 Stephen produced his longest ever panoramic memory drawing of Tokyo on a 10-foot-long (3.0 m) canvas within seven days following a short helicopter ride over the city. Since then he has drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid,[6] Dubai,[7][8] Jerusalem[9][10] and London[11][12] on giant canvasses. When Wiltshire took the helicopter ride over Rome, he drew it in such great detail that he drew the exact number of columns in the Pantheon.[13]
In October 2009 Stephen completed the last work in the series of panoramas, an 18-foot (5.5 m) memory drawing of his spiritual home, New York.[14][15] Following a 20-minute helicopter ride over the city he sketched the view of New Jersey, Manhattan, the Financial District, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn over five days at Pratt Institute, the world-famous college of art and design, in New York.
In 2010, he made a series of drawings of Sydney,[16][17] and visited Bermuda National Gallery where the sale of his drawing of Hamilton City [18] broke auction records. In June 2010, Christie's auctioned off[19] an iconic oil painting of his titled Times Square at Night.
Stephen Wiltshire started a tour of China in September 2010, with a first project taking him to Shanghai.[20]
His most recent project took him to New York to create 250 feet (76 m) long panoramic memory drawing of New York which is now displayed on a giant billboard at JFK airport. It is a part of a global advertising campaign[21] for the Swiss bank UBS that carries the theme "We will not rest", the New York Times reports.[22]
[edit] Recognition
Stephen's work has been the subject of many TV documentaries. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, writes about him in the chapter "Prodigies", in his book An Anthropologist on Mars.
In 2006, Stephen Wiltshire was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art.[1] In September 2006 Stephen opened his permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London.[3]
On 15 February 2008, ABC News named him Person of the Week.[23] In his first intimate interview with The Independent[24] in 2009 he revealed his dreams, aspirations, idols and biggest regrets.
In July 2009 he acted as ambassador of the Children's Art Day in the United Kingdom.
In 2011, Stephen Wiltshire has been made an honorary Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustration (SAI).
[edit] See also
- Beautiful Minds: A Voyage Into the Brain, a documentary on a number of similarly gifted people, including Wiltshire
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Kirby, Terry (4 January 2006). "Honour for autistic man who speaks through art". The Independent (London). http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article336417.ece. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ^ a b c "Biography". The Stephen Wiltshire Gallery. http://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk/biography.aspx. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ^ a b c d Treffert, Darold. "Stephen Wiltshire - Prodigious Drawing Ability and Visual Memory". Wisconsin Medical Society. http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/savant_profiles/stephen_wiltshire. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ Education details at www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk
- ^ "Unlocking the brain's potential". BBC News. 10 March 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1211299.stm. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
- ^ ADN - La memoria fotocopiadora de Stephen Wiltshire
- ^ Khaleej Times - Inkredible man
- ^ ePathram - UK Artist Stephen Wiltshire’s Giant Canvas on Display at DIFC
- ^ ynet - A picture's worth
- ^ Haaretz - Painting a picture of Jerusalem
- ^ Geoffery Wansell (2008-04-08). "Revealed: How autistic genius Stephen Wiltshire drew his amazing picture of London's skyline". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=557942&in_page_id=1770.
- ^ Stephen Adams (2008-04-02). "Stephen Wiltshire, the human camera who drew London from memory". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/02/ncamera102.xml.
- ^ "Stephen el memorioso" El Pais, 2008-02-05 (In Spanish)
- ^ Jim Dwyer (2009-10-28). "Like a Skyline Is Etched in His Head". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/nyregion/28about.html?_r=1.
- ^ "Autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire draws spellbinding 18ft picture of New York from memory... after a 20-minute helicopter ride over city". London: Daily Mail. 2009-10-29. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html.
- ^ Stephen Wiltshire's Sydney project
- ^ Artist with a difference - Stephen Wiltshire in Sydney
- ^ The Royal Gazette
- ^ A Star is Born
- ^ Shanghai Times
- ^ Television ad for UBS featuring Stephen Wiltshire
- ^ Elliott, Stuart (2011-05-12). "This Billboard Could Draw Attention". New York Times. http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/12/this-billboard-could-draw-attention/.
- ^ "Stephen Wiltshire Person of the Week" ABC World News, 2008-02-15
- ^ The Independent - My secret life
[edit] External links
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