Bernard Cheese – Salmon Nets Drying, 1959, lithograph
PLEASE NOTE THIS EXHIBITION HAS NOW ENDED
Exhibition dates: 29th May – 31st October 2021, subject to government guidelines.
Lithographic Fever Extended Catalogue Desktop Version
Lithographic Fever Extended Catalogue Mobile Version
In 1950, the artist Michael Rothenstein wrote to the Arts Council from his home in Great Bardfield, Essex. He wanted money to help publish prints celebrating the Festival of Britain, in 1951, by himself and his near neighbours John Aldridge, Edward Bawden and Kenneth Rowntree. However, Philip James at the Arts Council refused. James feared there were too many prints being published and the country was suffering an outbreak of ‘lithograph fever’.
The fifteen years after 1945 are now seen as a lean time for British printmaking. Yet contemporaries such as James saw the reverse. In particular, colour lithography became a fashionable and respected medium. Some believed cheap lithographs were a way to bring art to the people. Others felt lithography was simply well suited to modern tastes for colour and bold technique.
This exhibition recaptures something of the excitement of lithography in those years, and shows the artists of North West Essex as central to this national phenomenon.
Exhibition sponsored by
Michael Rothenstein – Signals, 1952 – 3, lithograph