Published 01/09/2009
Bridgeman now representing Cyril Power for licensing. Over 60 vibrant linocut designs.
|
|
Cyril Edward Power (1872–1951) was an architect in his early fifties when he exchanged careers to avant garde linocut printmaker, becoming a leading member of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London under the inspirational leadership of Claude Flight.
|
|
What was the linocut? The linocut print is a relief print made from linoleum fastened to a wooden block. It was introduced by the German Expressionists and was promoted as a non-elitist, widely comprehensive new art form, whose figurative, semi-abstract language was one of radical simplification. It was the perfect medium for evoking the restlessness of modern life and complimented the cultural manifesto, ‘Aims of the Art Today,’ jointly composed by Power and Sybil Andrews in 1924, arguing for radical modernity in art to match an industrial society. The polemic tones were in keeping with the Italian Futurists and English Vorticists a decade before yet the mechanically hard edged and jagged style, fast becoming associated with Fascist propaganda, was supplanted by a more fluid pattern and rhythm, conveying a more poetic yet still dynamic urban experience. |
|
Power wished to evoke the spirit of a tumultuous age This edginess is hinted at in a number of Power’s prints. The Merry Go-Round may be decoratively playful yet it also seems to be on the verge of heading out of control. |
|
‘When we say a work of Art has form, we mean its instinct with Life.’ Cyril Power, 1924 In linocut prints made in a period of just over a decade, Power explored aspects of society around him in an authentically avant-garde spirit, which can be appreciated for their dynamism and decorative design nearly a century on. Source: Cyril Power Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue, 2008, by Philip Vann |
|
|