Published by Royal Academy of Arts. Edited by James Russell. Interview by Irving Sandler.
Over his long career, David Remfry (born 1942) has achieved a mastery of watercolor that few have matched. Unusually for the medium, he works on a large scale and often focuses on people, exploring the dance hall and the nightclub in images that are at once beautiful, intimate and edgy. This book is the first full-length monograph devoted to Remfry’s watercolors. Its author, James Russell—well known for his writing on 20th-century British artists—traces the evolution of a remarkable talent, looking at the most significant works and placing Remfry in the context of both the British watercolor tradition and international contemporary painting. Having spent 20 years living and working at the legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York, Remfry has a following on both sides of the Atlantic. New Yorkers—often in party mode—feature in many of his paintings, and his recollections of people and places add color to the text.
Published by Royal Academy Publications. By David Remfry.
David Remfry has produced beautiful portraits of dogs and their often well-known owners, creating evocative pencil-and-watercolour portraits to reveal the companions' mutual understanding, empathy and pathos. The sitters include a number of residents of the Chelsea Hotel as well as other partnerships he has witnessed in New York and London. These include: Alan Cumming and his rescue dog Honey; Susan Sarandon and her diva-like Pomeranians, Penny and Rigby; Agnes Gund and her Wheaten Terriers, Tina, Giotto and Bronzino; Laura Kaplan and her dachshund Oscar; Ethan Hawke and Nina. The list is intriguing, the relationships heartfelt. Remfry's portraits are accompanied by preliminary sketches and the artist's reminiscences about the sittings, as well as brief accounts by his sitters of how dog and owner came to find one another. David Remfry, best known for his life-size watercolors of urban scenes and nightclubs. He had his first solo show in London in 1973; more than 50 international solo exhibitions have followed at such major venues as the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York.
We Think the World of You: People and Dogs Drawn Together