Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire makes drawings, and more recently paintings, from memory. He concentrates almost exclusively on architecture. He provides exact, literal renditions of any building, no matter how complex, and in fact he seems to prefer the especially intricate. He observes buildings and retains an exquisitely precise and detailed image for later recall and drawing. Stephen's work depicts exactly what he sees without embellishment, stylization, or interpretation. He makes no notes; impressions are indelibly and faithfully inscribed from a single exposure for later recall and he draws swiftly, beginning anywhere on the page.

As a child, Stephen was mute and did not relate to other human beings. Aged three, he was diagnosed as autistic. He had no language, uncontrolled tantrums and lived entirely in his own world.

At the age of five, Stephen was sent to Queensmill School in London, a school for children with special needs, where it was noticed that the only pastime he enjoyed was drawing. It soon became apparent he communicated with the world through the language of drawing; first animals, then London buses, and finally buildings. These drawings show a masterful perspective, a whimsical line and reveal a natural innate artistry.

Aged eight, Stephen started drawing cityscapes after the effects of an imaginary earthquake as a result of being shown photographs of earthquakes in a book at school. He also became obsessed with cars and illustrations of cars at this time (his knowledge of them is encyclopaedic) and he drew most of the major London landmarks.

The teachers at Queensmill School encouraged him to speak by temporarily taking away his art supplies so that he would be forced to ask for them. Stephen responded by making sounds and eventually uttered his first word - "paper". He learned to speak fully at the age of nine.

In 1987, the BBC QED programme The Foolish Wise Ones featured Stephen's astounding talent. The programme was devoted to three autistic savants: musical, mathematical and artistic. Stephen was introduced by Sir Hugh Casson (past president of the Royal Academy), who described him as "the best child artist in Britain". Stephen's work has since been the subject of numerous television programmes around the world, and the writer and psychologist, Oliver Sacks, has devoted an essay to Stephen in his book An Anthropologist On Mars. Stephen is the only artistic autistic savant in the world whose work has been recorded and published since his childhood. His third book Floating Cities was number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

"A few tourists in Red Square stopped and peered desultorily; they saw a funny little boy, on a little stool, pretending to draw... and then, as the Spassky Tower began to take shape, as Stephen's masterly draughtsmanship and grasp of perspective became manifest, as the first outline was filled with rich, confident detail, they ceased to be desultory, they were arrested, they stopped in wonder—until finally there was a crowd of people, hushed, watching him in awe." Oliver Sacks in the foreword to Floating Cities.

Stephen completed a Foundation Degree at the Architectural Association in London in 1994, and pursued a three year degree course in drawing/painting at City & Guilds of London Art School where he achieved a postgraduate degree in Prints and Drawings in 1998.

In May 2005, following a short helicopter ride over Tokyo, he drew a stunningly detailed panoramic view of the city on a 10 metre long canvas. Since then he has also drawn Rome, Hong Kong, Frankfurt and London on giant canvases.

In June 2006 he was awarded an MBE in recognition of his services to art.