Friday Lates discussion

Contemporary artist, Shirazeh Houshiary RA, joins our Director, Sir Gabriele Finaldi, to discuss her practice in relation to 17th-century Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán.

Formal elements of Renaissance painting can be found in Houshiary’s work in her composition, rhythm, structure and depiction of light. This is particularly evident in her digital animation, ‘A Cup and a Rose’ (2019) inspired Zurbarán’s still-life painting ‘A Cup of Water and a Rose’ (1630). In 2008, Houshiary was commissioned to design the East Window installed above the altar of the neighbouring St Martin-in-the-Fields, for which she cited the painting ‘The Veil of St Veronica’, which features in our exhibition ‘Zurbarán’, as a source.

Their discussion is interspersed by choral performances by St Martin’s Voices, featuring a selection of sacred music chosen in response to the exhibition.

Sir Gabriele Finaldi is our Director. He was formerly Deputy Director for Collections and Research at the Prado Museum, Spain, and has previously been a curator at the National Gallery. A world expert on Italian and Spanish art, he studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and has written widely and curated many exhibitions.

Since rising to prominence as a sculptor in the 1980s, Shirazeh Houshiary’s practice has swelled to encompass painting, installation, architectural projects and film. Veils, membranes and mists are leitmotifs in work that tries to visualise modes of perception, spanning the scientific and the cosmic while drawing on sources as wide-ranging as Sufism, Renaissance painting, contemporary physics and poetry

Shirazeh Houshiary was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1955, where she attended university before moving to London, UK in 1974. She has a BA from Chelsea School of Art (1979) and lives and works in London. She became a Royal Academician in 2022. She has had solo exhibitions at the Long Museum, Shanghai, China (2023), Lisson Gallery, London (2021), Shanghai (2020), and New York (2017); Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (2016); The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland (2007); and Tate Liverpool, UK (2003).

St Martin’s Voices is one of the UK’s most versatile professional vocal ensembles. They sing for concerts, broadcasts and special events at their home in London’s iconic St Martin-in-the-Fields and beyond, and regularly perform alongside the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London Mozart Players and Piatti Quartet. They have toured the USA and South Africa as well as undertaking extensive tours across the UK. The choir regularly features in broadcasts including BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4 and Classic FM. They have recently performed at Lambeth Palace and the Houses of Parliament.