{"id":8835,"date":"2018-02-23T09:49:59","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T09:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=8835"},"modified":"2020-09-04T15:37:34","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T14:37:34","slug":"ra250-at-the-fitz-stephen-chambers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/2018\/02\/23\/ra250-at-the-fitz-stephen-chambers\/","title":{"rendered":"RA250 at the Fitz: Stephen Chambers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Chambers is one of 7 Royal Academicians, who have connections with Cambridge, taking part in RA250 at the Fitzwilliam Museum<\/a>.<\/h2>\n

We asked each to pick a work in our collection that has inspired them and tell us why.\u00a0Stephen chose a print by William Blake from The Gates of Paradise<\/em>, c.1825, At Length for hatching ripe\/he breaks from the shell<\/em>.\u00a0 It is displayed in a floor case in Gallery 6 next to a painting by Stephen which was directly inspired by the Blake.\u00a0 This is how Stephen explained his choice:<\/p>\n

\"\"
Stephen Chambers RA in front of some of the paintings from the exhibition The Court of Redonda<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAs always I champion the maverick; the independent thinker who fits no stream, no strata. I am in no way a nationalist, nor a scholar, but Blake\u2019s Englishness appears evident, and at his core. This is a personal observation, but I see his work as a visual conversation with the world around him. His mistrust of its conventions, doubts over its priorities, and his recognition that he could neither adapt or adjust.<\/p>\n

“Like all great artists he cut his own furrow. I don\u2019t see him as a wanton non conformist, rather he was doing all he could. Images brewed in his brain, poured down his arm, and spilt on to plate or paper. Doing what he could not help but do; that is where individuality lies.<\/p>\n

“Several years ago, to coincide with Tate\u2019s Blake exhibition (where his studio was recreated in one of the galleries, – how weird was that?) several artists were invited to make transcriptions of his works. I made two small panel paintings based on engravings from The Gates Of Paradise. The exhibition happened but I continued to make my own painted versions of these engravings, I have now made most, if not all. They were made as a devoted way of looking closely at images that I am intrigued by. I have a history of this (Brueghel\u2019s Twelve Flemish Proverbs<\/em>, amongst others). An observed response, they are, so to say, a silent conversation, a one way love letter.<\/p>\n

\"\"
William Blake \u201cAt length for hatching ripe\/he breaks the shell\u201d from Gates of Paradise. (c) The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This engraving, and angel hatching from an egg, is a particularly odd image, but hey, so is a baby with wings. I have the painting because I gave it to my late mother. The others are all in various locations. Blake\u2019s engravings vary in size and scale a lot, from tiny, to small. It is his adherence to his source, and his hand writing that is consistent.<\/p>\n

“In 1998-99 I was the Kettle’s Yard<\/a> artist in residence. A studio in Christ\u2019s College, rooms at Downing. As a curious, uneducated \u2018oik\u2019 I was an outsider on the inside, which has always struck me as a good place to be…. Privileges, without responsibilities, and a great place to observe. The wonderful, lamented Michael Harrison was running Kettle’s Yard. I attended lectures on acoustics, Roman marble carvings, South American megatheriums and much beside. Made friends for life, in fields I would not otherwise have encountered, and, of course, discovered the museums. Changed my life, and I hope, in a minuscule way I left a legacy. Downing College now has an art gallery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Stephen Chambers RA, egg\/Angel (after Blake) c.2004 (with apologies for photo quality but taken after installation in Gallery 6 at the Fitzwilliam)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephen Chambers\u2019 temporary exhibition The Court of Redonda<\/em> (2016-2017) will be at the Heong Gallery, Downing College<\/a>, 24 February to 21 May 2018.\u00a0 He also has works in the collections of St John\u2019s, Emmanuel, Downing, Christ\u2019s and Jesus Colleges, the Chemistry Faculty and Cambridge University Library.<\/p>\n

Find out more about Stephen\u2019s work:<\/p>\n

www.stephenchambers.com<\/a><\/p>\n

www.royalacademy.org.uk\/artist\/stephen-chambers-ra<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This project, with Art Fund support, forms part of RA250 UK<\/a>:\u00a0 Exhibitions and events around the UK to celebrate 250 years of the Royal Academy of Arts<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Chambers is one of 7 Royal Academicians, who have connections with Cambridge, taking part in RA250 at the Fitzwilliam Museum. We asked each to pick a work in our collection that has inspired them and tell us why.\u00a0Stephen chose a print by William Blake from The Gates of Paradise, c.1825, At Length for hatching ripe\/he breaks from the shell.\u00a0… Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,156],"tags":[],"coauthors":[276],"class_list":["post-8835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museum-life","category-the-fitzwilliam-museum"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8835"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8843,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8835\/revisions\/8843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8835"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.museums.cam.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}