Leap Into...

Happy Leap Year!

To find out more about Nicholson's Almanac of Twelve Sports, read our previous blog post: The Year in Sport

Sutherland on Show

These lithographic posters (left) were created by Graham Sutherland for the Ninth Biennale International d'Art at Menton where he was Guest of Honour in 1972. Posters for the same art event had been designed in previous years by artists such as Dufy, Chagall, Dali and Picasso.  

It was Picasso who had a particularly strong influence on Sutherland throughout the British artist's career, and this link is amongst those explored in the new Tate exhibition, Picasso and Modern British Art.

Sutherland said of Picasso: '[he] seemed to have the true idea of metamorphosis, whereby things found a new form through feeling.' *

Sutherland’s own experimentation with form is explored in the current exhibition at Modern Art Oxford where an extensive collection of rarely seen paintings are on show.
 

For a glimpse of the exhibition have a look at these pics on the BBC website.
 

For more of our Sutherland prints, including Metamorphosis: Egg, Larvae, Pupae (right), click here.
 

For our Picasso prints, click here.

*quoted in The Spirit of Place: Nine Neo-Romantic Artists and Their Times by Malcome Yorke

Très Posh

  

Pochoir fashion prints are synonymous with the Art Deco period. Pictures such as these would have appeared in the popular French fashion journals of the time, evoking the sensuous spirit of the first quarter of the 20th century. Created by well known artists, these prints were the benchmarks of  taste, aiming to establish fashion as a true art form. In its first editorial, the famous Gazette de Bon Ton stated that 'The clothing of a woman is a pleasure for the eye that cannot be judged inferior to the other arts.'

Unlike previous fashion illustrations, these pochoir prints usually depicted the model in narrative situations, inviting us to project stories onto the images and, indeed, the clothes. 

For instance, why do you think this beautiful woman looks so blue? (Arrêtons-nous Ici to view her more closely.)

Check what’s left in stock by viewing our collection.

And to learn more about the Pochoir printing technique, have a read of our recent Dufy catalogue.

Fashion Disaster

You can always count on Gillray to comment on society with a delicious dose of sarcasm.

Watch the clip below to see his take on the fashion tastes of the Regency period, wittily summarised in this print called The Advantages of Wearing Muslin Dresses (Dedicated to the serious attention of the Fasionable Ladies of Great Britain).

(Note the painting of Mount Vesuvius above the fireplace!)

If you feel like casting judgement on the trends of our own times, London Fashion Week is now in full flow...

See Celia

Celia Birtwell, celebrated textiles designer, has been David Hockney’s muse since 1968. Hockney was one of the two guests present at her wedding to the famous fashion designer Ossie Clark: a marriage which, though brief, fuelled a stylistic partnership which helped to define the culture of 1960s couture. 

It was during the early ‘70s that Hockney painted Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy which today remains one of the most viewed paintings in the Tate Britain gallery. In 2005 it was short listed for the title, ‘The Greatest British Painting’ on the BBC’s Today programme. After Celia and Ossie divorced, Celia worked as a paid model for Hockney in Los Angeles and came to be called “the face that launched a thousand prints”.

The etching we have is entitled Soft Celia and dates from 1998. It carries something of the warm and lasting friendship that exists between the artist and his subject.
 

For Soft Celia’s soft furnishings click here.
 
For Hockney’s cushions, take a seat here.

Listen Up, Folks

Congratulations to June Tabor who was named best folk singer of the year earlier this week at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, also winning 3 other categories with her music collaborators: The Oysterband.

We were very lucky to have June perform for us at the gallery back in September 2010…and this May we look forward to welcoming Home Service on stage. They are the winners of this year’s Best Live Act award, so it’s sure to be an unmissable event, and in the intimate surroundings of our tiny 60 seat auditorium, you’re sure to feel right at home at the Goldmark Front Room.

To reserve tickets (they go fast!) and 

to see what other legends we’ve hosted here 

- amongst them, Richard Thompson 

and Martin Stone & Friends (left) -  

 visit our music website.

Fleeing Romance

Seeking to escape from the amorous advances of Apollo, river nymph Daphne prays to be rescued. Mid-chase she is transformed into a laurel tree, her feet rooting into the ground as her arms begin to sprout branches.

Olive Wooton’s sculpture captures this dramatic point in the mythological tale. Daphne’s metamorphosis is already taking place but none of the human emotion is lost from her partially hidden face, enclosed in its canopy of bronze leaves.

At 182cm Daphne cuts an imposing figure in the gallery. We also have a bronze bust of the same subject which you can view here, or follow the link to see Daphne surrounded by fellow trees on the BBC website.

Olive Wooton was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1992. For more of her work, including her sculptures from the Rime of The Ancient Mariner, click here.

Walking in the Snow

If recent snowfall has made you opt for hibernation over transportation, it's time to don your wellies and join Dylan Waldron as he walks through the winter landscape which inspired the painting below (Ridge and Furrows, Welham).

Dylan has exhibited regularly in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

For an early taste of summer, try here and here.

Art Lovers

Shop windows and aisles are piling up high with fluffy red hearts and endless confectionary.

For something a little different, watch our video below.

And tell us which one you fancy.
xxx

Follow your heart (and the links below) to view the artwork: 

1) Patrick Caulfield - You'll Be Sick...
2) Eric Gill - Lovers
3) Dora Holzhandler - Lovers in Winter
4) George Barbier - Romance Sans Paroles
5) Colin Self - S.W.A.L.K.
6) Henri Matisse - J'aime Marie
7) Andrzej Kuhn - Lovers Reunited
8) Eduardo Paolozzi - Toads (Copulating)
9) Dora Holzhandler - Lovers in Paris
10) Jago - The Kiss
11) Grahame Wheatley - Spring Cleaning
12) James Gillray - The First Kiss These Ten Years!
13) Marc Chagall - The Two Pigeons