ACADEMIC Departmental Reviews
ART It was another great year within the Art Department. We started the year with renowned New York photographer Henry Hargreaves delivering a lecture on his work and how he generates his ideas. This inspired the boys to think about how to generate interesting narratives and conceptual ideas in their work. We have seen the fruit of that, particularly in the senior painting classes. This year, we also welcomed the return of student art being exhibited publicly, with the Christ’s College Students and Old Boys' Art Exhibition organised by Oli Aikawa. This was a superb show, bringing together 78 paintings and photographs. The Old Boys' contribution was fantastic, with artists such as Toby Raine, Henry Hargreaves, and Ciaran Banks. Last year’s Head Prefect, Benji Ward, also contributed several superb works. The largest contribution came from Oli Aikawa, who entered 20 impressive works. The student contribution was excellent, with Eric Liu exhibiting seven beautiful works on paper and two paintings on canvas. Colin Gong, Peter Wang, and Otto Elworthy (all from the Year 13 class) produced stunning works. Oscar Chen showed two oil on canvas paintings that demonstrated a superb handling of paint and an understanding of portrait painting. The colourful multi- image paintings by James Hadden and Kennedy Xiao were superbly executed. It was great to see juniors contributing quality artworks to the exhibition. In this regard, I would like to make special mention of Bill Li, Felix Liu, and James Whitaker. You can all be very proud of being part of a successful exhibition. There were many achievements within the classroom. Among the
Eric Liu
Year 9 classes, Felix Liu, Arthur Brown, Paddy Laidlaw, and Sam Hurst all submitted a first-class series of abstract drawings. We look forward to seeing where your work develops in the future. In core painting, Kiki Anglem and Jack Hastie demonstrated great drawing and painting skill in their Pop- inspired paintings. Sam Nicholl and Bruno Kearney made competent and well-resolved maquettes in core sculpture. While Bill Cross, Mitchell Lewis, Archie Nijjar, and Cam Hill all excelled in core photography. There were strong bodies of work produced by the Year 11 boys. James Hadden made some outstanding oil paintings on canvas that were based on architecture and still-life. They were abstract while being highly realistic at the same time. Kennedy Xiao made beautiful surrealist paintings on canvas. They were multi- view compositions that were full of intriguing narratives. Oscar Talbot was
another student who stood out in the painting class. The minute details in his paintings were incredible. James Wood, Hugo Trolove, and Tasman Daly also produced fabulous submissions. At Year 12, Oscar Chen developed an excellent series of figurative paintings that wove together history, and different cultural and socio- economic backgrounds. There was an assuredness in his paint handling and in the draughting of his figures. The Year 13 students were terrific again this year. Eric Liu continued his strong run in the Art Department. He developed complex works based on the designs and forms found at the bottom of the ocean. This provided a rich foundation on which he built beautiful paintings, prints, photographs, and clothing lines. Colin Gong made confident, large-scale paintings on canvas that took us into underworld landscapes and elongated creatures. Otto Elworthy developed decorative narrative paintings based
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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