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Design Review: Volume 5, Issue 1 (March-April 1953)

Art Review … — Contemporary British Lithographs

page 13

Art Review …
Contemporary British Lithographs

Colour lithography is the vogue in England at the moment. “Colour” is probably the keyword there for lithography responds to colour more completely than any of the other graphic processes. The copperplate renders line and tone; boxwood is supreme for black and white. The woodcut belongs to Japan. Western print-makers have, I think, made the mistake of adopting the Japanese technique. The humble linocut is the only process wherein the oil printing ink has been exploited. But where the linocut gives patches of flat colour, the litho stone or plate will yield as well chalk or brush marks in every conceivable gradation or texture. So responsive is the medium that its commercial value was soon recognised and it was used extensively for the making of colour reproductions, chromo lithos at first, and now photo litho offsets. Daumier, Lautrec and later Nicholson and Pryde showed that lithography was an artistic medium in its own right. British railway companies realised the possibilities of the process for producing large decorative posters in bold flat colours. More recent London Underground posters have shown that lithography can capture all the little accidents that add to the personality of a design. Frequently now the designer draws directly on to the stone or plate from which the reproductions will be made.

Most of the graphic processes impose their own restrictions within which the artist is bound to work. Lithography, like painting, requires the artist to set the boundaries within which he will remain a contented prisoner. Herein lies the strength and the weakness of lithography—the almost infinite variety of treatments from which something truly lithographic must be selected.

The Exhibition of Contemporary British Lithographs selected by Rex Nan Kivell of the Redfern Gallery and now on a New Zealand tour organised by the Nelson Suter Art Society, contains 37 colour prints. They are extremely interesting. The general effect is one of gaiety. The very first visitor to the Exhibition at the National Gallery burst into laughter—so spontaneously that I joined in. “What good fun,” was his comment. Some later visitors were puzzled by some of the prints and some were annoyed. Some liked them very much. There's certainly nothing tame about the Collection and very few visitors remain indifferent.

“Potrait of a girl” by William Scott

“Potrait of a girl”
by William Scott

There is nothing at all out of the ordinary in most of the subjects chosen. The catalogue lists such titles as “The Woodman”, “Landscape”, “Basket with Fruit”, “Sideboard with Fruit”, “Girl at the Piano”, “Boy with Birdcage”. But the subject matter nearly always forms the basis or a more or less abstract composition wherein the artist has invented his own shapes and textures. William Scott and Michael Ayrton adhere to traditional brush, pen and chalk and rely on sensitive draughtsmanship plus stimulating colour and design. Scott's “Portrait of a Girl” is a delightful print in all respects and Ayrton's two “Shepherd” pieces show complete mastery of the medium. Robert MacBryde, Robert Colquhoun and Julian Trevelyan are other painters who have found lithography a congenial outlet. This is, in fact, an exhibition by painter-lithographers. Graham Sutherland, Ceri Richards, Michael Rothenstein, John Minton, John Piper page 14 and Keith Vaughan are all there. Among the notably missing are Barnett Freedman, Edwin la Dell, Morris Kestelman and Henry Trivick, all of whom are known primarily as lithographers.

Looking critically at the Collection I found that the trick of transferring wood grain became rather tiresome. Such textures are intriguing if used sparingly, but with too frequent repetition they become dull. The source of the demand creates another danger. Lithographs appeal because of their colour. A public, not too discriminating, wants coloured pictures. Artists with little understanding of lithography can supply these via the lithographic process. A good printer can cope with practically anything handed to him on plate or transfer paper. Good lithographs may give way to elegant trifles or may degenerate into lithographic reproductions, and we come back to the chromo lithographs of Grandmother's day.

Note: William Scott's “Portrait of a Girl” and Robert Macbryde's “Woman at Table” are reproduced in the “Studio”, September, 1950.

“Woman at Table” by Robert Macbryde

“Woman at Table” by Robert Macbryde