Jim Hunter
Diploma in Art and Design
Winchester School of Art
MA Fine Art
Royal College of Art
Professor of Painting
Deputy Principal
Jim’s research is concerned with the practice of painting and is a sustained exploration of the potential of an abstract visual language to offer an equivalence of sensory experience. Current projects explore the medium of watercolour within contemporary fine art and its capacity for sustained experimentation, interrogating the ways it can carry meaning within the context of critical discourse. Jim’s paintings and sketchbook studies - outdoor and studio-based – are extending the interests identified during a three-month sabbatical period supported by the Institute in 2005-6 which allowed an intensive period of investigation in pursuit of innovative responses to the particularities of place and moment. These responses were encapsulated by a body of work, ‘A Short Grand Tour’, first exhibited as part of the 2007 text + work programme at the Gallery (The Arts Institute at Bournemouth) and accompanied by a publication / critical commentary. The work was subsequently shown at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery (July – August 2008).
Instigated by Stephanie James, Jim participated in a successful AHRC Knowledge Catalyst application with regional gallery ArtSway (Hants). Seeking to explore current levels of dissemination of writing and practice and the contribution of the individual to writing on art, the principal outcomes were two seminar events, ‘Spinning a Line’ and ‘Crafting a Visual Language’ held in the New Forest Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). Jim chaired both events where panels included artists, writers, curators and academics. The ensuing publication, Word Matters (Hunter, J., James, S., Shamlou, O. and Sanna, J. eds) was published by text + work (The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, 2007) and contains the transcripts of both seminars along with an audio CD.
In 2008, Jim curated ‘Frank Bowling RA: Big Paintings’ (exhibited at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth and at the University of Wolverhampton). He also authored the accompanying catalogue and critical text and chaired the public conversation with Frank at the Arts Institute (February). The exhibition focused on Bowling’s large paintings from the 1980s, many of which had an impressive provenance of exhibition at that time, but which had not been shown in the two decades subsequent.
Sketchbook study, Venice. Watercolour and collage, 2007, by Jim Hunter.