Anne Desmet was born in Liverpool in 1964 and went on to study at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford and London’s Central School of Art and Design.
She was awarded a scholarship at the British School at Rome in 1989, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and was editor of Printmaking Today from 1998-2013. She is an experienced printmaking tutor in many British print workshops and art colleges.
Desmet uses collage and print to depict the built environment. She is engaged with the evolution of the urban landscape and its testimony to the aspirations and experiences of humanity. Her abiding subjects are Italy, London and the Babel Tower. She uses the traditional printmaking techniques of wood engraving and lino-cutting but draws on a variety of materials to create distinctive layered collages. Her work ranges from small scale, detailed examinations to sweeping, often fantastical, panoramas viewed from a bird’s eye perspective.
Desmet has had over 40 solo shows including five major museum exhibitions in the UK and overseas and her work is widely represented in national and international public and private collections. She is currently curating a major exhibition, opening next spring at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, which will celebrate the last 100 years of wood engraved prints. Desmet was elected as a Royal Academician in 2011.
Engraver
Born: 1964 in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Nationality: British
Elected RA: 26 May 2011
Gender: Female
Visit Anne Desmet RA (b. 1964)'s website
Preferred media: Printmaking, Wood engraving, and Woodblock prints
Anne Desmet RA
Hackney Olympic Site I, 2009
Colour-blended wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Hackney Olympic Site II, 2009
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Site in Construction II, 2009
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Stadium with Cranes II, 2009
Colour-blended wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
London Olympic Site-WWII Archaeology, 2010
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Site in Construction III, 2010
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Derelict Warehouse, Olympic Site, 2010
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic O, 2011
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Velodrome Unveiled, 2012
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Aquatics Centre in Construction, 2012
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Aquatics Centre, 2012
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Velodrome Site in Construction, 2009
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Stadium with Cranes I, 2009
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
London Olympic Velodrome Site, 2009
Wood engraving
Anne Desmet RA
Olympic Shadows, 2011
Wood engraving
2018 Anne Desmet RA- An Italian Journey, Gainsborough’s House Museum, Sudbury
Anne Desmet RA – Towards the Light, Long & Ryle Gallery, London
2017 Anne Desmet RA: Under Changing Skies, Holburne Museum, Bath
2016 Anne Desmet RA – An Italian Journey, Royal Overseas League, London
Anne Desmet RA, Eton College, Berkshire
2015 Anne Desmet RA – Time Sequences, Long & Ryle Gallery, London
Anne Desmet – Urban Echoes, Wirral Festival of Firsts, Hoylake
2013 Anne Desmet – Sky Lines, Aldeburgh Lookout, Aldeburgh, Suffolk
2012 Anne Desmet – Olympic Metamorphoses (touring), Pitzhanger Manor Gallery, London; Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate; Bluecoat Arts, Liverpool; Editions Ltd, Liverpool; RA Library, London
Anne Desmet RA – Fragments of Time, Hart Gallery, London
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
British Library, London
British Museum, London
Ex Libris Museum, Moscow, Russia
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Lahti Art Museum, Finland
Manchester University
Municipal Art Gallery, Lodz, Poland
Musée d‘Art Contemporain, Chamalières, France
Museo Civico, Cremona, Italy
Museu de Arte do Espirito Santo, Vitoria, Brazil
Museum of London
Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa, Finland
Pallant House, Chichester
Royal Collection, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Worcester College, Oxford
2018 Honorary Fellowship, Worcester College, Oxford University
2015 Honorary Membership of the Printmakers Council, UK
2014 Juror’s Prize, International Footprint Exhibition, Connecticut Center for Printmaking, Connecticut, USA
3rd Prize, Lessedra International Miniature Print Exhibition, Sofia, Bulgaria
2013 Prizewinner, 9th Biennial Miniature Print Exhibition, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Connecticut, USA
2012 Grants for the Arts Award: Arts Council England. For Sense of Soane exhibition
2011 Elected Member of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA) in the category of Engravers, Printmakers & Draughtsmen
V&A Acquisition Prize, The Discerning Eye exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Intaglio Printmaker Prize, Bite National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Society of Wood Engravers’ Award, Bite National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Follow Anne Desmet on her grand tour of Italy with this beautiful book, filled with her own sketches and watercolours of Italian cityscapes and landscapes.
Each image displays Desmet’s precision and eye for detail, giving the reader an intimate view of her journey across the magnificent country, from Rome to Sicily and Umbria.