GEOFFREY HUMPHRIES, AN ENGLISHMAN INSEPARABLE FROM HIS CHOSEN MISE EN SCENE FOR FIFTY YEARS, THE CITY OF VENICE
SOLO EXHIBITION AT THE OSBORNE STUDIO GALLERY
FROM SEPTEMBER 26TH TO OCTOBER 12TH
PORTRAITS, NUDES, ‘THEATRICAL PIECES’, BY A BRILLIANT COLOURIST
AND MASTER OF SHIMMERING LIGHT
HIS STUDIO APARTMENT OVERLOOKING THE GIUDECCA, THE SCENE OF A THOUSAND RIOTOUS PARTIES, EXPRESSES A PERECT VISION OF ‘ LA VIE BOHEME’
Geoffrey was born Maurice Brown in 1945 of unknown parentage, renamed Geoffrey George Humphries by adoptive parents, Zoe and Leslie Humphries, lorry driver.
He won a scholarship to High Wycombe School of Art, studied at the London School of Printing, Chelsea School of Art and finally at the Accademia delle Belle Arte in Venice in 1967, graduating with highest honours in 1974. In 1968 awarded the Bevilacqua prize and Premio Alberoni, Venice. First one man show in Lucca, Tuscany, in the same year. .
About his art: ‘The human figure, especially the female nude, and the portrait, have been the focus of Geoffrey Humphries’ art since he was washed ashore here almost by accident in 1966. Beautiful women have been his inspiration, from young students to terrifying femmes fatales, and the decadent denizens of the carnival and cabaret dream world.’
Portraits include:
David Bowie, Albert Finney, Sam Mendes, Kate Winslet, Laurie Lee, Freddie Fox, Joseph Heller, Vikram Seth, Prinz und Prinzessin Otto von Hessen, Emily Mortimer, John Berendt, Alexandra Sitwell, Craig Brown, Lady Rose Lauritzen and Mrs. Tom Kempner
The paintings he calls ‘Theatrical Pieces’ depict an eternal cabaret scene, a sense of being underground in some secret basement. These are fantasy pictures playing upon the reputation of Venice as a place of excess, and the fin de siècle obsessions with love and death.