Thinking through drawing
Chris Wilkinson RA
3 September 2015 - 14 February 2016
Tennant Gallery and Richard Sharp Council Room
Tuesday–Friday, 10am–4pm
Saturday and Sunday, 10am–6pm
Closed Monday
Complimentary entry with a valid Royal Academy exhibition ticket, or £3 General Admission ticket. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free when with a fee-paying adult.
Friends of the RA go free
Giving a unique insight into the mind of an architect, the RA presents the personal sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson RA.
To have an architect or artist share their sketchbooks is to be offered an extraordinary window into their creative process, to reveal their observations and their thinking, to see the designer’s mind at work. For an architect, the sketchbook is not just a place to draw, but a place to order thoughts – to graphically and visually gather information and to develop a design response.
This is certainly true for renowned architect Chris Wilkinson RA, who believes passionately in the importance of drawing by hand, particularly in an age dominated by digital media.
This exhibition contains a selection of Wilkinson’s sketchbooks, drawings and watercolours from the last 30 years alongside architectural objects. They reveal his design thinking, from initial site studies and early concepts to design development and construction, through projects such as the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, Maggie’s Centre in Oxford and the King’s Cross Gasholders.
Please note, this exhibition will be closed from 2pm for essential maintenance on Wednesday 3rd February.
Tuesday–Friday, 10am–4pm
Saturday and Sunday, 10am–6pm
Closed Monday
Complimentary entry with a valid Royal Academy exhibition ticket, or £3 General Admission ticket. Friends of the RA and under 16s go free when with a fee-paying adult.
Friends of the RA go free
Gallery
Chris Wilkinson’s sketchbooks,
Crown Hotel, Sydney, Australia (completion due 2019),
Carphone Warehouse, Merry Hill (concept, 1997),
King’s Cross Gasholders (completion due 2016),
Battersea Power Station, London (completion due 2019),
Dyson Headquarters, Malmesbury (completed 1999),
University of Exeter: Forum Project (completed 2012),
Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth (completed 2013),
Chris Wilkinson RA on thinking through drawing
Chris Wilkinson RA discusses why drawing frees his mind, giving a unique insight into his practice. © Candida Richardson, 2015
Shop
This handsome book, Chris Wilkinson's Sketchbooks by Chris Wilkinson and Charles Saumarez Smith, is published by the Royal Academy of Arts and is available in hardcover. It brings together images selected from 20 years of Wilkinson’s sketchbooks, presenting a fascinating record of the creation of architectural narrative.
This unique insight into the working drawings of a hugely influential architect includes sketches for many of his practice’s most groundbreaking works – from structures for the London Olympics to the restoration and reconstruction of the three Grade II listed gas holders in King’s Cross, London – as well as a gazetteer with photographs of the completed projects.
This book comes with a limited edition print.
Related articles
In memoriam: Chris Wilkinson RA
20 April 2022
Thoughts on paper: the sketchbooks of Chris Wilkinson RA
28 August 2015