Stephen Wiltshire
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Stephen Wiltshire Template:Post-nominals (born 24 April 1974) is a British architectural artist and autistic savant.<ref name=WiltshireBio>Template:Cite web</ref> He is known for his ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once. His work has gained worldwide fame.
In 2006, Wiltshire was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art.<ref name=MBE>Template:Cite news</ref> In the same year, he opened a permanent gallery on the Royal Opera Arcade in London.<ref name=WMSWiltshire/>
Early life
Stephen Wiltshire was born in London in 1974 to Caribbean parents; his father, Colvin, was a native of Barbados, and his mother, Geneva, is a native of Saint Lucia.<ref name=MBE /> He grew up in Little Venice, Maida Vale, London.<ref name=Independent>Philby, Charlotte (23 January 2009). "My secret life: Stephen Wiltshire, artist, 34". The Independent.</ref> Wiltshire was non-verbal when young. At the age of three, he was diagnosed with autism. The same year, his father died in a motorbike accident.<ref name=WiltshireBio /><ref name=MBE />
At the age of five, Wiltshire was sent to Queensmill School in London where he expressed interest in drawing. His early illustrations depicted animals and cars; he is still extremely interested in American cars and is said to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of them. When he was about seven, Wiltshire became fascinated with sketching landmark London buildings. After being shown a book of photos depicting the devastation wrought by earthquakes, he began to create detailed architectural drawings of imaginary cityscapes.<ref name=WiltshireBio />
In June 2015, the BBC's Lucy Ash reported: "Soon people outside the school started noticing Stephen's gift and aged eight he landed his first commission—a sketch of Salisbury Cathedral for the former Prime Minister Edward Heath".<ref name="BBC News 12 June 2015">Template:Cite news</ref> When he was ten, Wiltshire drew a sequence of drawings of London landmarks, one for each letter, that he called a "London Alphabet".<ref name=WMSWiltshire />
In 1987, Wiltshire was part of the BBC programme The Foolish Wise Ones.<ref name=WMSWiltshire>Template:Cite web</ref> Drawings, a collection of his works, was published that same year.<ref name=WMSWiltshire />
Between 1995 and his graduation in 1998, Wiltshire attended the City and Guilds of London Art School in Kennington, Lambeth, South London.<ref>Education details at www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk</ref>
Career
Wiltshire can look at a subject once and then draw an accurate and detailed picture of it. He frequently draws entire cities from memory, based on single, brief helicopter rides. For example, he produced a detailed drawing of four square miles of London after a helicopter ride above that city. His nineteen-foot-long drawing of 305 square miles of New York City is based on a twenty-minute helicopter ride.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also draws fictional 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). Floating Cities was number one on The Sunday Times best-seller list.
In 2003, a retrospective of his work, "Not a Camera: the Unique Vision of Stephen Wiltshire", was held in the Orleans House gallery in Twickenham, London.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In May 2005 Wiltshire produced his longest ever panoramic memory drawing of Tokyo on a Template:Convert canvas within seven days following a helicopter ride over the city. Since then he has drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Madrid,<ref>ADN – La memoria fotocopiadora de Stephen Wiltshire Template:Webarchive</ref> Dubai,<ref>"Inkredible man", Khaleej Times, 15 April 2008.</ref><ref>"UK Artist Stephen Wiltshire's Giant Canvas on Display at DIFC", ePathram.com, April 2008.</ref> Jerusalem<ref>A picture's worth at ynet.com</ref><ref>Painting a picture of Jerusalem Template:Webarchive, Haaretz</ref> and London<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref>"Stephen el memorioso", El País, 5 February 2008 (in Spanish)</ref>
In October 2009 Wiltshire completed the last work in the series of panoramas, an Template:Convert memory drawing of his "spiritual home", New York City. Following a 20-minute helicopter ride over the city he sketched the view of Manhattan, the Hudson shoreline of New Jersey, the Financial District, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Brooklyn over five days at the Pratt Institute, a college of art and design in New York City.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This piece is now located at the Empire State Building, on the 86th floor observation deck.
In 2010, he made a panorama of Sydney to raise funds for and awareness of Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect).<ref>Stephen Wiltshire's Sydney project at his official website</ref><ref>Artist with a difference – Stephen Wiltshire in Sydney, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 29 April 2010.</ref> He visited Bermuda National Gallery where the sale of his donated drawing of Hamilton raised over $22,000.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2010, Christie's auctioned off<ref>A Star is Born</ref> his oil painting Times Square at Night.
Wiltshire started a tour of China in September 2010, with a first project taking him to Shanghai.<ref>Article image, Shanghai Times (archived at his official website), 29 September 2010.</ref>
A 2011 project in New York City involved Wiltshire's creation of a panoramic memory drawing of New York which is now displayed on a Template:Convert long giant billboard at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It is a part of a global advertising campaign<ref>Television ad for UBS featuring Stephen Wiltshire</ref> for the Swiss bank UBS that carries the theme "We will not rest", The New York Times reported.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also that year, he appeared on Top Gear.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In July 2014, Wiltshire drew an aerial panorama of the Singapore skyline from memory after a brief helicopter ride, taking five days to complete the 1m x 4m artwork. The artwork was presented to President Tony Tan as the Singapore Press Holding (SPH)'s gift to the nation in celebration of Singapore's 50th birthday in 2015, and is now displayed at Singapore City Gallery, visitor centre of the country's urban planning authority, Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Wiltshire's feature-length documentary titled Billions of Windows<ref>Stephen Wiltshire's documentary</ref> premiered in London on 13 November 2019.
Recognition
Wiltshire's work has been the subject of many TV documentaries, like The Human Camera.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote about him in a chapter on prodigies in his book An Anthropologist on Mars.
In 1989, Wiltshire appeared on the cover of You magazine with actor Dustin Hoffman, who had portrayed autistic savant Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 Oscar-winning film, Rain Man, which Wiltshire considers to be one of his favourite films.<ref name=Independent/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In 2006, Wiltshire was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to art.<ref name=MBE/> In September 2006 Wiltshire opened his permanent gallery in the Royal Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London.<ref name=WMSWiltshire/>
On 15 February 2008, ABC News named him Person of the Week.<ref>"Stephen Wiltshire Person of the Week" ABC World News, 15 February 2008</ref>
In July 2009 he acted as ambassador of the Children's Art Day in the United Kingdom.Template:Citation needed
In 2011, Wiltshire was made an honorary Fellow of the Society of Architectural Illustrators (SAI).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In January 2015, Wiltshire was also made an honorary Fellow of The Scottish Society of Architect Artists.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
- Pages with broken file links
- 1974 births
- Artists from the City of Westminster
- Autistic artists
- Autistic savants
- British autistic people
- Black British artists
- 21st-century Black British people
- British mnemonists
- Alumni of the City and Guilds of London Art School
- English people of Barbadian descent
- English people of Saint Lucian descent
- Living people
- Members of the Order of the British Empire
- People from Maida Vale
- British artists with disabilities