Passion
A new exhibition marks the launch of a book, Passion, which brings together 24 drawings about love by artist Richard Kenton Webb. 
In 2020, within three months, Webb had left his full-time teaching post of 15 years, started a new role and moved to Devon. He found himself suddenly alone in lockdown, in a hut by the sea, away from his family, teaching online. Broken and exhausted, he started to reflect on the challenging professional circumstances of the past years. Overwhelmed by grief, he processed his thoughts and feelings through drawing. The result is 24 drawings - Webb’s deep and personal passion. This is a song of survival, companionship and love, inspired by the Passion of Christ.
Anyone who has experienced separation, rejection and persecution will find comfort in the universal message of these drawings. The isolation and vulnerability are intensely moving.
‘For over 30 years, Richard and I have been in a creative conversation that has allowed me some wonderful opportunities to write about his work. Writing the foreword to this book has given me the chance to explore something different - the theology of embodied love revealed in the gospel of John, an increasingly significant shared focus for us both.’ Dr Richard Davey
In 2023, Benjamin Rhodes visited Webb at his new studio in the centre of Plymouth. He was profoundly moved and determined to share these drawings as both a publication and an exhibition, despite the fact that they were never originally intended for public view. 
‘Once I was shown this series, I knew they merited being seen and understood widely - each of us from our own singular place.’  Benjamin Rhodes
Passion is dedicated to all outsiders and will be published on 30th April at the opening of Webb’s solo show, Passion Drawings & English Iconoclasm, at Benjamin Rhodes Arts, 62 Old Nichol Street, Shoreditch, London, E2 7HP. The exhibition runs until Saturday 29th June. The gallery is open Wednesday – Saturday, 12 noon to 6pm or by appointment. 



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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, ARTIST INTERVIEW, HI-RES IMAGES & REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT BENJAMIN RHODES: 07768 398428 or benjamin@benjaminrhodes.co.uk
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Biographical information
Richard Kenton Webb (b.1959) is Visiting Professor at Arts University Plymouth where, until recently, he headed up the Painting, Drawing and Printmaking BA and MA. He has exhibited in the UK and around the world, alongside residencies in Paris, Rome, Florence and as far afield as China, Australia and USA. Webb is one of the few British artists trained at both the Slade and the Royal College of Art. He studied under and alongside many well-known artists and teachers in studios where scholarship is celebrated. In 2016, he was shortlisted for the John Moores Painting Prize and in 2020, winner of the international London Sunny Art Prize. Having lived in Gloucestershire for 30 years, Webb moved to Devon in October 2020. By April 2021, he had completed his Conversation with Milton’s Paradise Lost – 128 drawings, 40 paintings and 12 relief prints spanning 10 years. This led to a commission of 12 drawings in response to Milton’s poem, Lycidas, for the Milton Society of America; a chapter in Milton Across Borders and Media, Oxford University Press; and a solo show at Milton’s Cottage in Chalfont St Giles. In 2022, Webb returned to Plymouth from the prestigious Josef and Anni Albers Foundation Residency in Connecticut where he embarked on his Manifesto of Painting. His recent solo show at The Mirror Gallery Plymouth was the summation of this ‘manifesto’ – a celebration of paint and colour. 
Online flip book
Click on link below
https://artsites.uk/benjamin-rhodes-arts/richard-kenton-webb/passion/#p=1 
Advance information about the book Passion
Foreword by Dr Richard Davey
Essay by Professor Hugh Adlington

Final Passion Drawing

Wonder, Richard Kenton Webb, 2021, 53 x 76cm, charcoal & white chalk on paper
Photography by Andy Green

The Power Of Silence 
50x50cm monotype.
​The theme of this year's RA Summer Exhibition is Dialogues.
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