Jane Furst
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (April 2021) |
Jane Furst | |
|---|---|
 Furst at Dartington Art gallery in 1999 | |
| Born | 21 July 1944 (age 77) Durban, South Africa |
| Nationality | English |
| Education |
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| Occupation | Fine artist |
| Movement |
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| Spouse(s) |
Graham Beeching
(m. 1979; div. 1981)Michael Copus
(m. 1993; died 2000) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | Fellowship Kalaimaiyam 2019 |
| Website | www |
Jane Furst (born 21 July 1944) is a contemporary English artist. Her work draws upon an interest in artists from the distant past, for example Northern Renaissance, from whom she borrows images, and also the study of natural form. She has done many etchings and Mezzotints inspired by the drawings and lithographs of Ernst Haeckel. She is interested in showing the monumentality of small things, such as the microscopic Radiolarian discovered by Haeckel.
Biography[]
Furst's mother is , a poetess and one time campaigner for African rights. Her father is related, on his maternal side, to Elizabeth Ilive, Countess of Egremont. Her father was James Wyndham Hibbert, a businessman and grandson of the architect James Hibbert who designed the Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library in Preston. She is the second of four children born to them. The three others died in infancy from Cystic fibrosis. Furst spent many of her early years in South Africa but was boarding for four years at Waldorf schools in England (Michael Hall, Sussex ) also in Hanover Germany and Paris before returning to South Africa to complete her schooling. In all she went to eight different schools. In 1962 she returned to England for good to go to Hammersmith Art School and spent the greatest part of her adult years in London.
Career[]
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in Textile Design 1970, Furst received a commission to illustrate the record cover for music inspired by The Lord of the Rings by Bo Hansson; multi- instrumental rock music ( 1972 Charisma Records version ).
Between 1973 and 2007 she was a visiting lecturer in numerous art institutions including Saint Martin's School of Art, London College of Furniture, Middlesex University and Richmond Adult Community College. She frequently taught Colour theory, Measured drawing and Visual research.
In 1972, Furst designed and made costumes for a production at the Queen Elizabeth Hall[1] by the Electric Candle percussion/ theatre group, founded by Meirion Bowen. Her then husband, Anton Furst, was the designer for the show. Jane Furst designed and made costumes for strippers for the choreographer of Raymond Review Bar, Gerard Simi. She later made historical costumes for museum dressed figures.[citation needed]
Whilst a student at the Royal College of Art,[2] Furst developed some avant guard costumes designs for the Insect Play by Karel Čapek. She was inspired to create these by seeing the costume designs of Oskar Schlemmer[3] from the ( Triadic Ballet, Bauhaus) and also the then contemporary choreographer Alwin Nikolais. As she was using insects for her textile ideas this was a natural progression. In her second year at the RCA Furst entered a competition to design some costumes for a Mozart opera to be performed at the college. She did not win the commission but received a commendation from the head of Interior design, Hugh Casson. The committee had liked the designs but thought they might be too challenging for the performers.
In the 1980s, she did a number of cover illustrations for Virago, notably Guests in the Body by Michelene Wandor, and several for The Women's Press, feminist science fiction section.
Since 1988, Furst has had numerous exhibitions of her illustrations and Botanical paintings; at the Barbican Centre in London, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Victoria Art Gallery in Bath and other public and private galleries in Britain and Spain. The two exhibitions at the Barbican Centre were; Secret Gestures in 1988, of Furst's Virago book cover illustrations, and the second was called , Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life in 1993. At Kew Gardens Gallery, Royal Botanic Gardens, Furst was one of three artists in the exhibition called, Seasons of Mists 1995/96. In 2017 she received an Arts Council grant for a major retrospective called By this Hand held across three locations in Rochester Kent.
Between 1999 - 2000 Furst opened and ran a small gallery in Wandsworth (old Town) called, The Studio Gallery. She curated six exhibitions in that time. One was for the artist Di Livey. Her exhibition was called 'Trace Patterns'.
In 2002 a publishing company, called Furst & King, was established by Jane Furst and her daughter Vanessa King. They have printed limited editions of small art books and catalogues and the poetry book, The Three Mysterious Trees, copies of which are lodged at the British Library. One of the art books is on her late husband called ' Michael Copus, Museum Artist'. It was designed by Chrissie Charlton at Chrissie Charlton & Company. Published 2007.
Furst curates ad hoc, for her mother Beryl Gascoigne, the residual portfolio of Joseph Webb's etchings.
From 2007 to the present, Furst has developed her printmaking skills having studied mezzotint under Dorothea Wight and Marc Balakjian at Morley College London and also at Bon A Tirer under Ana Villen in Granada Spain. She now practices printmaking at INTRA Medway Fine Printmakers in Rochester.
Galleries and locations exhibiting her work[]
Solo exhibitions[]
- 2017 'By This Hand', Arts Council funded exhibition in Rochester
- 2013 Cafe Moroc, Rochester - Prickley Botanics & Radiolaria
- 2012 Open Studios, Rochester
- 2011 Potemkin, Granada Spain, Marine Machine
- 2008 Bon A Tirer, Granada Spain, Parejas (couples)
- 1999 The Studio Gallery, London - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1999 Dartington Art Gallery, Devon - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1997 Candacraig Gallery, (Aberdeenshire - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1993 Barbican Arts Center, London - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1992 Upton Park Heritage Centre, Poole - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1992 Seedpod Vessels of New Life - Durham City Art Gallery
- 1992 Seedpod Vessels of New Life - Victoria Art Gallery Bath
- 1992 Kendal Brewery Arts Centre - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1990 Ecology Gallery, London - Seed Pods, Vessels of New Life
- 1989 Salisbury Festival, Creasy Gallery - Secret Gestures
- 1989 The Grange, Brighton Museum - Secret Gestures
- 1988 Barbican Arts Centre, London - Secret Gestures
- 2021 Boats Re - Imagined, at INTRA Rochester
Group exhibitions[]
- 2020 'NICHES', Installation exhibition at St Mary's Burham Kent (Two Artists)
- 2020 Medway Print Festival - Lockdown
- 2019 Medway Open Studios at INTRA, July
- 2016 Medway Print Festival - Sun Pier House (six artists)
- 2014 - 16 Medway Open Studios at INTRA
- 2014 - 16 Wayzgoose Print Fair - Medway Fine Printmakers
- 2014 Rochester Art gallery - Beyond Boundaries - craft case
- 2013 Open Studios, Coal Shed Press, Rochester
- 2013 Morley College, London - Made
- 2010 Bon A Tirer, Granada Spain, 13 Huellas +1 (Jane Furst)
- 2010 Event Gallery, London - Boxed in Time
- 2009 Morley College, London - Made
- 2006 Annual Open Exhibition RWS, Bankside, London
- 2002 Chapel Gallery, Saltram, National Trust, Devon
- 2002 In Gallery Mode, Business Design Centre, London
- 1999 Candacraig Gallery, Aberdeenshire - Gardens of Scotland, 2 Artists
- 1998 Museum of Garden History - Careless order, Painted Earth, 2 Artists
- 1995 Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens - Season of Mists, 3 Artists
- 1992 Castlegate House Gallery, Cumbria - Secret Garden
- 1989 The Arts & Crafts Movement, Wandsworth Pictures of Places, 3 Artists
- 1985 Royal Watercolour Society, Bankside - Annual Open
- 1982 London College of Furniture - Staff Show
- 1981 Axis Gallery, Brighton - Mixed
- 1980 West Sussex College of Design - 3 Artists
Works in national collections[]
- Rochester Cathedral, Three Stencilled Banners
- Victoria & Albert Museum, Print Department, London
- Iconographic Collections Wellcome, London
- The ERNST HAECKEL Haus, University of Jena, Germany
Gallery[]
Jane Furst whilst a student at the Royal College of Art
Lawrence of Arabia with his crown of Thorns 1983
Two Medicago seed pods 1993
Night Warriors, 2012
Costume designs for the Insect play by Karel Capek.1970
Mistress Gaia, Lovelocked.( Earth Goddess) 2016
Knut, Sky Goddess, 2016 monotype etching
Jane Furst showing her printing techniques 2014
Royal Vessel for the Queen, 2016
Marine Machine
Pumps, Sea Chimes, Three Royal Vessels
Watercolour painting of Botanical study of a seed pod using gesso also as background 1999.
References[]
- ^ "Queen Elizabeth Hall | Southbank Centre". www.southbankcentre.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
- ^ "Home". RCA Website. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
- ^ "Oskar Schlemmer | German artist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
- National Portrait Gallery
- The C-Word: Motherhood, Activism, Art, and Childcare
- Harris Museum Art Gallery
- Discography, Bo Hansson music
- Not-for-profit organisation working to support artists
- Anton Furst (Batman production designer)
- WorldCat: Jane Furst : by this hand : selected works 1966-2017
- WorldCat: Michael Copus : museum artist
- Jones, G. A. (January 01, 1986). Cry wolf by Aileen La Tourette. Foundation : the International Review of Science Fiction.
- The Tale of The Three Mysterious Trees
- Jane Furst | Medway Fine Printmakers, Jane Furst: intaglio techniques
- Joseph Webb artistics
Media related to Jane Furst at Wikimedia Commons- Official website
- 1944 births
- Living people
- 20th-century British women artists
- 21st-century British women artists
- 20th-century South African women artists
- 21st-century South African women artists
- Alumni of the Royal College of Art
- British contemporary artists
- People from Durban