Exhibition: Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking at the Dulwich Picture Gallery
An exhibition focusing on the brief but intense period of dynamic printmaking during the inter-war period is appearing at the Dulwich Picture Gallery as the first major show of work by artists from the Grosvenor School of Modern Art.
Celebrating 90 years since the inaugural exhibition on British linocuts at the Redfern Gallery in London, Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking will bring together 120 prints, drawings and posters to highlight a radical movement that incorporated metropolitan and rural life, men and women, as well as British and international students.
The exhibition will run from June 18 until September 8 and will go on to highlight the central themes explored by students of the Grosvenor School, revealing the power of linocut to transform every day subjects into dynamic works of art.
Dulwich Picture Gallery will also bring together proofs and sketches for works that will examine materials and technique. The exhibition will include original tools and studies showing how the Grosvenor School revolutionised the process, as well as rarely seen sketchbooks from the Power estate and family photographs of the artists.
The exhibition is guest curated by Gordon Samuel, one of London’s leading specialists in Modern British painting. He said: “I have been exhibiting the Grosvenor School linocuts for the past 35 years at exhibitions and art fairs at home and abroad and they never fail to attract an appreciative audience.
“What will strike visitors are the vivid colours and the Modernity of the work – amazing to think that these were made over 90 years ago and remain just as compelling today as back in the 1930s!”
Jennifer Scott, The Sackler director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, said: “With instantly recognisable and relatable themes, the rhythms of daily life represented in these artworks created nearly 100 years ago still feel immensely poignant today.
“There has never been a better time to bring together such important reminders of the essential links between life and art.”