Tag: Grosvenor School

Designer Desire: Lill Tschudi

Montage of Lill Tschudi linocuts

Lill Tschudi (1911-2004) was a 20th century Swiss-born linocut artist. Along with the likes of Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power and Claude Flight, she was a member of the influential London-based Grosvenor School.

She produced in excess of 300 different linocut designs during her illustrious career. Like the other Grosvenor members, her subject matter often included sport, transport and travel – conveying the speed and movement in that distinct style.

Her work has been included in many exhibitions worldwide; British Prints from
the Machine Age at MoMA (2019/20), Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking at The
Dulwich Picture Gallery (2019), The Cutting Edge of Modernity: An Exhibition of Grosvenor School Linocuts at the Osborne Samuel Gallery, London (2013), British Prints from the Machine Age: Rhythms of Modern Life, 1914–1939 at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston & MoMA (2008).

Prints of her work can be bought covering a range of budgets. Top dollar works come up for sale at auction houses such as Bonham’s and Christies with hammer prices from £2,000 to the tens of thousands. Pallant House and The Bookroom Art Press sell prints from £138.00. If that’s still too steep, there are prints listed on eBay for less than £20.00.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the work of Lill Tschudi and the other Grosvenor School alumni, there have been a few books & catalogues published on the subject; The Cutting Edge of Modernity: Linocuts of the Grosvenor School, Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking and British Prints from the Machine Age: Rhythms of Modern Life. Tschudi’s 1933 Ice Hockey print (shown in the montage above) is the cover artwork for Impressions of the 20th Century: Fine Art Prints from the V&A Collection.

Portrait of Lill Tschudicredit

Additional image credits:
Artsy

Designer Desire: Sybil Andrews

Montage of Sybil Andrews linocuts
Sybil Andrews was a talented and successful 20th century British artist best known for her colourful abstract linocut works.

Andrews (1898-1992) was a member of the Grosvenor School along with artists we’ve featured before – her long-time mentor and collaborator, Cyril Power and their tutor, Claude Flight.

During her career, she created at least 76 linocuts. Like many artists during the 1930s period, she was captivated by movement, sport, speed and the machine age and this shone through in her work. Like many of her Grosvenor School contemporaries, she was heavily influenced by the earlier UK Vorticism movement.

MoMa, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, Glenbow Museum, Calgary and Moyse’s Hall Museum (in her home town of Bury St Edmunds) hold examples of her work in their permanent collections.

Although originals and vintage limited edition prints of her work are expensive, you can buy new prints and cards from The Blank Card Company.

Published in 2015, the book, Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue by Hana Leaper is available from Abe Books.

Portrait of Sybil Andrewscredit

Additional image credits:
Artnet | The Blank Card Company

Designer Desire: Cyril Power

Montage of Cyril Power artworks

Cyril Power (1872-1951) was a leading lights of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. He was tutored there by one of our earlier Designer Desire featured artists, Claude Flight. Power also taught at the school, lecturing on architecture.

Self-portrait by Cyril Power

Power’s subject matter was often about travel and sport – he made many studies of London Underground. His linocuts are full of movement, kinetic energy and speaks of the obsession with speed that was prevalent at that juncture of the 20th century.

For a while, he shared a studio and often collaborated with fellow Grosvenor alumnus, Sybil Andrews until they parted ways in 1938. They produced posters for London Transport for events such as Wimbledon and the Epsom Derby. These works were signed jointly as ‘Andrew-Power’.

His work is in the permanent collections of, amongst others, The British Museum, National Galleries Scotland, London Transport Museum and MoMA.

Original, limited edition prints of his works can be regularly had at auction or new reprints are available on eBay.

There are a few of books dedicated to his back catalogue including The Linocuts of Cyril Edward Power 1872-1951 and Cyril Power Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue.

image credits

Designer Desire: Claude Flight

Montage of Claude Flight linocut designs

London-born Walter Claude Flight (1881-1955) was a pioneer in the linocut art discipline. Before becoming an artist, Flight trained as an engineer, became a librarian, kept bees and was a farmer.

His linocuts are full of colour and movement and illustrate the time’s preoccupation with speed, progress, modernism and the machine age.

Over his career, he produced over 60 limited-edition prints that, on the odd occasion, come up for sale at auction. Examples have sold at Sotherby’s for $20,000+ USD. Goldmark sell official reprints for £250.00. His work is in the permanent collections of the V&A, the British Museum and the National Gallery of Australia.

A couple of his books, namely Lino-cuts, Lino Cutting and Printing, Christmas and Other Feasts and Festivals and Animal, Vegetable or Mineral (shown in the montage above) all command huge prices on second-hand book seller websites.

From 1926, Claude Flight taught a linoleum cut class at the London Grosvenor School of Modern Art in Pimlico, London. His students included Sybil Andrews, Dorrit Black, Eileen Mayo, Cyril Power, Ethel Spowers, Eveline Symes, Lill Tschudi and his partner Edith Lawrence (whom he’d met a few years earlier). This talented lino cut collective became known as The Grosvenor School.

Portrait of Claude Flightcredit

Additional image credits:
Goldmark