Zürich

Material

Acylic on canvas; 200 x 400 cm

Dating

2003

About the artist

Ben Johnson left school at the age of 14 and attended the Chester and Wrexham Art Schools. From there he went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London. His first solo exhibition was held in New York in 1969. In 1973, Johnson had the first show to open the new gallery at the ICA. He is the only painter who has been made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects for his contribution to the public’s understanding of contemporary architecture, having been elected in 1990. Numerous commissions include the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, the National Museum in Liverpool and many private collectors.
In 1994, Johnson embarked on depicting cityscapes. The output from his London studio changed from five paintings a year to one every two years in spite of now employing three full-time assistants. His paintings became evermore complex and computer technology became essential to assist his growing ambition for detail. His cityscapes have so far included Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Zurich, and Liverpool. The last was painted when Liverpool was European City of Culture in 2008. It took the artist three years to complete, working with up to eleven assistants and was finished in public during a residency at the Walker Art Gallery. The cityscapes are painted from aerial viewpoints, sometimes using models to achieve the correct composition. Artistic license is employed to create ‘ideal’ views of the subject cities.