DRAWING
Drawing is communication: all children draw and even as adults it remains instinctive to us, and for many is the yardstick by which art can be measured. Art in schools and art colleges has always encouraged students to draw to resolve problems, to map out work and as a medium unto itself. The joy of drawing can be its immediacy. For David Hockney drawing has been a major part of his work: in pencil, crayon or pen he has recorded every aspect of his life, from the swiftest sketch with a Rotring pen to more considered studies in pencil and crayon. But drawing is not just about pen and pencil: artists such as Roger Ackling use the focused rays of the sun through a magnifying glass to draw the landscape whilst Michael Craig-Martin draws huge pictures on walls with graphic tape. Younger artists such as David Landy, Chad McChail, Paul Noble and David Shrigley use traditional pens and pencils to observe or imagine in intricate detail urban life, common or garden weeds or simply to wryly comment on the everyday.
The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum have extensive collections of drawings, from Leonardo da Vinci to the present day, and mount frequent exhibitions and thematic displays. Many regional galleries and museums in the UK have large holdings of works on paper, notably Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and Cecil Higgins Art Gallery in Bedford. The Victorian artist and writer, John Ruskin, founded the Guild of St George to not only teach drawing but also how to see drawing. The Guild runs a campaign Drawing Power to encourage the practice and appreciation of drawing by children and adults alike. As Ruskin himself observed drawing is the foundation of visual thought.
PRINTS
The founding of St George’s Gallery in 1955 by Robert Erskine as both a gallery and an imprint marked the beginning of a renaissance in British printmaking. There had been a tradition of printmaking stretching back to Hogarth in the 18th century, as engravings and mezzotints had proved a popular way of reproducing artworks for a wider public. By the start of the 20th century artists began using print media as a means of creative expression. These works were rarely editioned, and often printed in various states as the artist reworked the plates until a final version was achieved. In 1940s lithography became a popular medium and sets were commissioned and published in their hundreds by CEMA (Council for the Encouragement of Music and Arts) and School Prints Ltd. This endeavour brought works by artists such as Picasso, Matisse and Henry Moore to a wider audience through distribution to schools, factories and offices. Artists rarely printed their own works, relying instead on an expert printer, often based abroad. Working with the master printer Stanley Jones of the London based Curwen Press, Erskine published sets of works on a theme as limited editioned portfolios.
Prints offered an affordable way to collect art and the rising post war prosperity created a greater market for such works. In the 1960s Editions Alecto, founded by Joe Studholme with Robert Erskine and Paul Cornwall Jones, ran both a gallery and a studio and attracted artists as diverse as Claus Oldenberg and Alan Davie. They published Hockney’s first major portfolio Rake’s Progress. Kelpra Studios, founded by Chris Prater, specialised in screenprinting and he worked closely with Patrick Caulfield, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bridget Riley and Joe Tilson, who have all since published major bodies of works. Other London galleries notably Bernard Jacobson, Marlborough and Waddington Galleries followed in Erskine’s footsteps by commissioning and publishing prints by contemporary artists.
Other leading publishers include Charles Booth-Clibborn who, under his imprint The Paragon Press, has published major suites of etchings by the Chapman Brothers, printed at the Hope Sufferance Studios, linocuts by Sir Terry Frost proofed by Hugh Stoneman in Cornwall and portfolios of screenprints by Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor and Rachel Whiteread. Alan Cristea Gallery publishes and exhibits works by both foreign and British artists, most recently large lithographs by Sir Howard Hodgkin, printed by Jack Sharrif in Wiltshire. Other imprints include Ridinghouse publishing works by Bridget Riley and Advanced Graphics printing works by Craigie Aitchison. John Hoyland and Albert Irvin. The Royal College of Art publishes occasional portfolios, printed in the college studios, featuring the works of members of staff and students. Twice yearly auctions of old master, modern and contemporary prints are held at Bonhams in London.
MULTIPLES
There is no absolute definition of a multiple; perhaps the chief characteristic of such a work is its ability to be reproduced. Similarly there is no prescription as to what it should be, but it is a term first coined in the 1960s to describe a work that was neither a print not an editioned cast sculpture. How many equals a multiple? There is no hard and fast rule, but many artists who create the works themselves, as opposed to employing a fabricator, work on the 3+ level which makes the work neither unique nor a pair, and does not involve endless repetitive labour.
Editions Alecto published a variety of multiples in the 1960s, including Claus Oldenberg’s London Knees and Sphinx by Richard Smith, and the Lisson Gallery and Unlimited in Bath published works by Stuart Brock, Kenneth and Mary Martin and Lillian Lijn. The idea of the multiple then fell by the wayside until the 1990s when artists like Peter Liversidge and Sarah Staton saw it as way of working, whilst for others it was more pragmatic and presented a way of funding larger unique works. Galleries such as the Serpentine, Camden Arts Centre and ICA in London commissioned artists to make multiples as a ‘souvenir’ of their exhibitions and to enable people of modest means to collect art. The Multiple Store, founded by Sally Townsend and Nicholas Sharp, created a new way of thinking about the multiple by commissioning artists who had an idea for a multiple that would be made by a third party. The Multiple Store acts as the middleman seeking out the best fabricators worldwide to realise the work with high production values.
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