SW Magazine
Wall to wall art

 


The home and gallery, once part of a Catholic convent, is shared by Cynthia, her husband and their 13-year-old daughter (when home from boarding school Bedales) plus a fluffy grey cat called Prinnie (short for Princepessa). The high ceilings and walls serve well as a gallery except that here, surrounded by family accoutrements, it feels less intimidating than the traditional kind and for art buyers, it is easier to imagine the paintings on your own walls.

The story begins in 1986, when Cynthia (originally from Boston) left her home in the States where she worked as a city banker in Manhattan. Having accepted an offer of a transfer with the same company over in London, she packed her bags and headed across the Atlantic. "Then I met my English husband over here and stayed: boom!" says Cynthia, as we sit talking over freshly brewed coffee, in a bright yellow painted room lined with an eclectic array of art. Cynthia speaks with passion about her story and all that is close to her heart. She is vivacious and energetic, a do-er and an achiever.
So, having met her husband, she continued to work on and offí as a banker until 1997, (having her daughter in between). "I could tell you my whole on and off story over another coffee meeting,î she adds laughing. "I decided I wanted to pursue the other things in my life -music and art." And so she enrolled at Christies to study art history for two years, specialising in modern art. But before anyone could accuse her of chasing a whim, Cynthia pulled together her first "home" exhibition in June 1999, before she had completed the course."I couldn't afford to rent a gallery, so a colleague at Christieís said, "why not have it athome?" So I did, and managed to make a small profit," she says, making it sound far too simple.

At that time, Cynthia showed paintings from her own collection including works by artists she had discovered over the years. Ghislaine Howard, for example, is married to a lecturer at Christies.

While looking around the lounge with its bay windows that open onto beautifully kept grounds and a large terrace, I come across one of Ghislaine's powerful paintings from a series entitled Stations of the Cross. Called Prisoner, it shows the image of a man viewed from behind, his arms tied at his back, awaiting his fate. Itís clear to see why Amnesty International was keen to acquire the painting, which now sits awaiting their collection.

Christies, again, provided Cynthia with another artist, Colin Wiggins. A lecturer there and head of the art-in-residence programme at the National Gallery, he mostly paints strong, female nudes. ìI try only to show art that Iím happy to have on my walls. I'm driven by passion," says Cynthia. I notice there are a number of paintings by artist Andrew Burgess, whose work reveals much about his love of travel and of heights. Cityscapes are a strong theme, with towering skyscrapers and views of the States, London, and other European cities. Interestingly, his painted world is devoid of people, creating a stillness that possesses none of the usual chaos associated with cities. Author Kazuo Ishiguro is one of Andrewís biggest collectors.
Other artists Cynthia represents include the well-known American artist Robert
Shaft, who lives in Amsterdam with his Dutch wife; the French artist Couloumy
(praised as a modern day Vermeer) and the Italian artist Marco Crivelli.
"It's very hard to juggle both. The art side is probably harder though, as thereís so much administration and the business side takes over the passion. I have to do it all on my own ñ collecting paintings from abroad, hanging them and so on. There's no one to ask, "can you go and do that please?" she says. But clearly she manages it all well - and with a range of bright plans for the gallery, plus a new CD out shortly, the staff quota looks about to change any time soon.

The Cynthia Corbett Gallery is showing at artLONDON, 22-26 May, Duke of York's HQ, Chelsea.

For further information on the gallery or Cynthiaís jazz performances, she can be
contacted on: 07939 085 076 or by email: corbettcc@hotmail.com

 

November 9,2001 Antiques and The Arts Weekly
Yankee Returns Home (For A Visit)

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery of Wimbledon England will soon be making its first appearance at a U.S. art fair in the home town of its owner - Boston. American Cynthia Valianri Corbett established her gallery in England in 1999. Corbett, originally from the Boston area, is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the Flercher School of Law and Diplomacy. She relocated to London from New York City in 1986 and pursued a career in investment banking. In 1996, Corbett enrolled in a course at Christies in London in order to fulfill a longstanding passion to study art history and opened her art gallery before the ink could dry on her diploma.
The gallery is operated from Corbett's Victorian home, which at one time served as a Catholic convent. With high ceilings, huge windows and massive rooms, it is an ideal place to showcase her growing stable of British and European-based artists.

"By showing art in a domestic setting, prospective buyers can envision the works in their own homes," said Corbett. "Sometimes people, especially new or young art collectors, can get intimidated in a gallery setting. In my home environment, filled with all the clutter of family life, visitors relax — this is very conducive for art appreciation."

Several of the artists who Corbett represents and promotes in London will be making their Boston debut at stand number eight at the Fifth Annual Boston International Fine Art Show being held at the Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts from November 15 to 18. These artists include the London based Anglo-Jewish artist Andrew Burgess; printmaker and draughtsman Colin Wiggins, who is also in charge of the art-in-residence program at London's National Gallery; Anglo-Irish painter Ghislaine Howard, who lives in the Derbyshire Peak District; and the American Robert Shaft, who has been living in Amsterdam with his Dutch wife for the last ten years.

Andrew Burgess's work is fueled by his fascination with travel and heights. He paints cityscapes of, among other cities, New York, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston, London, Sienna and Prague. Corbett comments, 'Andrew loves American cities, skyscrapers, 1940s film nolr, Pop Art and Hopperesque images. All of these influence his work and combine with his enthusiasm for climbingtowers and tall buildings. When you view his work you realize that he has no problems with vertigo!"

As Burgess himself says, "I go up high to get away from people. I need to be removed from the hyperactivity of the city. And I don't want the paintings to be picturesque scenes of everyday life, people shopping, sitting in cafes. I want something different." The painting of "Downtown Boston" illustrates the artists view of the world - it's alive with color and urban chaos just minus the people. The artist never paints people.

By contrast, Colin Wiggins almost exclusively draws people of the female variety and calls all of his works portraits — such as his nude portraits of French dancer "Elise Dujon after Ingres." He loves the female form and his work draws upon his daily environment - London's National Gallery where he has been surrounded by the Old Masters for 20 years. Even when Wiggins depicts ancient Irish tombs he sees the female form.

"Their soft, feminine forms gently allude to the human body at rest, poetic proof that those who built them and laid their dead to rest in them, understood the world as the Mother Earth to whom we all return," said Wiggins.

Painter Ghislaine Howard, British-born but with Irish parents, has been greatly influenced by a combination other Irish-Catholic heritage and years studying art in Paris. Howard, who is currendy the BBC artist-in -residence, is best known for her ground-breaking exhibition concerning pregnancy and birth at Manchester City Art Gallery and for her recent Amnesty International-sponsored monumental series "Stations of the Cross," which was shown at the two Liverpool Cathedrals in 2000 and at Canterbury Cathedral and in London's Mayfair in 2001.

The series was critically acclaimed, as Zariah Shreef ofThe Big Issue (a London magazine operated and run by and for homeless people) wrote in her review of the exhibition, "Ghislaine Howard is well on her way to becoming one of the great humanist artists of our time."
Howard's painting of "Grieving Woman" is a poignant visual expression of grief and although painted as one of the "witness" figures for the "Stations" series, it is a powerful albeit tragic reminder that the modern world has not been able to eradicate senseless violence.

Although Robert Shaft is a very serious painter, in marked contrast to the themes of Ghislaine Howard, Shaft's work is about fantasy and whimsy. Shaft commented, "I frequently hear the word cheerful when people view my work. I don't plan it that way, but I like it. I strive to achieve the effect of perfect silence I experience when I look at the work of the Great Masters — it's almost musical."

Born and raised in Michigan, having studied and worked in New York, Shaft is very much from the American tradition of Pop Art tinged with fantasy and Surrealism but always with a touch of the classical. His application of paint, use of light and color, and the finish surface of his paintings owe a great debt to Seventeenth Century Dutch Old Masters, all hardly surprising since he is married to the prominent Dutch decorative artist Sylvia Goetheer and has adopted Amsterdam as home. His "Teacups" seem to float in midair, a Pop Art version of Dutch still life. He has also recently completed a series of "Whimseys" which he will be showing at the Boston Fair.

Cynthia Valianti Corbett is looking forward to introducing these and other British and European artists to Boston. In London, many other clients are Americans who love the contemporary feel mixed with the traditional artistic qualities of the work she so enthusiastically promotes. Corbett may be "coming home" to Boston but she is certainly bringing a lot of fresh, new artistic
friends with her.
 


Monday January 13, 2003, The Guardian
Gallery chief put in the picture after framing top artists
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent

Sir Peter Blake looks like Santa Claus, Paula Rego looks ferocious and Frank Auerbach looks surprisingly amiable and domesticated. Colin Wiggins, the man on the easel or within the picture frame in the images, looks nervous, as well he might.

A unique set of portraits of eminent contemporary artists will go on display for the first time next week, at the London Art Fair.

Each is a portrait by Wiggins, deputy head of education at the National Gallery, of one of his heroes in art but in each case he gave th! e etching plates to his subjects and invited them to complete the picture by adding their own portraits of him.

The artists are all friends, and all agreed, instantly, even the notoriously secretive and reclusive Frank Auerbach: Sir Peter said they all liked the idea that they would get a set of portraits of their mates as part of the deal. Tortuous negotiations are now under way to swap etching plates between London and Los Angeles for the next in the series, the pop artist RB Kitaj.
Sir Peter, who has been knighted at the age of 70, has also just been appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy schools. The first group of students visited his studios just before Christmas.


Two of the National Gallery's double portraits

"I told them the one piece of advice I could give was to draw everything, all the time, and to date all their drawings. But you couldn't count on students today having the materials, so I made them all party bags. They each got a drawing pad, a pencil, a sharpener, and a rubber; and I put in a tangerine and a chocola! te pencil as well. People are just getting interested in drawing again; a few years ago it would all have been computers, but now they're just beginning to find them boring."

He became friends with Colin Wiggins over his mandatory mid-morning cup of tea, while he was artist in residence at the National Gallery. He said he was instantly intrigued by the portraits idea. "Frank's very good, Paula can look very fierce, but it's all an act. She's really a very gentle person. He's got me very nicely; it looks just like me. I'm not quite finished with him though, I need to do a bit more work, I'll have to get the plate back after the exhibition," Sir Peter said.

The idea sprang from an etching Mr Wiggins made of Jackson Pollock, incorporating his interpretation of a Pollock paint dribble painting. "It took much longer than the portrait of Pollock himself - I thought what a pity he isn't still alive, then I could have got him to do the Pollock bit."
The trickiest collaboration was with Frank Auer! bach. The painter is a legendarily obsessive perfectionist, often painting in marathon all-night sessions, then scraping off his work until only a ghostly image remains on the canvas, and starting all over again. Paintings take years to complete. The same technique could not be applied to a copper etching plate, but it was still not an entirely straightforward process. After Auerbach's customary stack of discarded drawings, he drew the Wiggins portrait straight onto the plate.

"He wasn't quite happy with the first image, so I burnished it away for him, just leaving the faintest outline as he asked. Then he made a second plate, and I printed the final image from both plates. He might have a reputation as a bit of a recluse, but he was very easy, very jolly to work with."

Pricing the double portraits could be slightly tricky. Paula Rego's eerie canvasses, drawing on images from folklore and fairy tales, are clamoured over by collectors. Peter Blake is regarded as the father of! British pop art, and immortal for his 1967 cover for the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. An etching by Frank Auerbach, one of the most distinguished painters working in Britain, would cost thousands; an etching by Colin Wiggins slightly less.

They will be on offer from gallery owner Cynthia Corbett, for £600, £650 framed. All the artists have waived their royalties and are contributing them to Smart, a charity for homeless and socially alienated artists, which is based at the National Gallery's neighbour, the church of St Martin's in the Fields.

London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London, January 15-19