Artist Stephen Wiltshire Draws NYC His Major Panorama from Memory

Written by Thomas Grider Thursday, 16 December 2010 20:46

NEW YORK, NY.- Following a 45-minute helicopter ride over this iconic city, Stephen will spend a week at Pratt Institute, the world-famous college of art, design and architecture, where he will draw an 18 ft-long image from memory. Stephen shot to fame in 1987 when his talent was featured on a BBC program and he was introduced by former president of the UK's Royal Academy of Art Sir Hugh Casson as ‘the best child artist in Britain.’ Since then, Stephen has continued to draw and paint prolifically, travelling all over the world to create his work and achieve worldwide fame. He has twice been featured in the list of the 100 most influential black people in Britain and in 2006 was awarded an MBE for services to the art world.  He will be based in the main gallery of Pratt’s Juliana Curran Terian Design Center, and the public will be able to visit him while he works from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday, October 26 to Friday, October 30.

Stephen Wiltshire comments: "I love New York, the busy streets, rush hour, the chaos, yellow taxis and the high rise buildings reaching up to the sky. The traffic, roads and avenues and a lot of American people. New York is beautiful."

Stephen Wiltshire is a London-based artist with a particular talent for drawing lifelike, accurate representations of cities, sometimes after having only observed them briefly. His New York panorama will complete his collection of nine works depicting some of the world’s most iconic cities – London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai and Jerusalem. Stephen toured the US three times in the early 90s and his fourth book 'American Dream' was based on his love of American architecture. Following the creation of this New York panorama, he will explore new creative directions with his work.

The work-in-progress he shared on the CBS News broadcast already showed a large portion of the Lower Manhattan skyline, including the Empire State Building.
So how long will Wiltshire retain his memories of New York's skyline? Wiltshire's sister, Annette Wiltshire, said he can keep memories for years, recalling the same buildings again and again for different works.

But as someone who has watched his career over the past 15 years or more, I've long known that there was much more going on in Stephen Wiltshire's creative process than simply acting as a human camera.

As the neurologist and psychologist Dr Oliver Sacks, who's also monitored his career so far, puts it: "His pictures in no sense resemble copies or photographs, something mechanical and impersonal - there are always additions, subtractions, revisions, and, of course, Stephen's unmistakable style."So, if you look closely at Wiltshire's drawings of the London skyline - and compare them with the photographs specially taken by the Mail of exactly the same views - you will see that time after time he adds or subtracts details from his drawings.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-557942/Revealed-How-autistic-genius-Stephen-Wiltshire-drew-amazing-picture-Londons-skyline.html#ixzz0VHytSZQ4

Work from Stephen’s entire career is permanently on display, alongside new paintings and prints, at the Stephen Wiltshire Gallery in London, where he also has a studio. His New York cityscape will go on permanent display in the London gallery later this year and members of the public will be able to put in their orders for a print of his New York panorama from Saturday, October 24 by visiting his website at www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk.

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