Grosvenor School of Modern Art
The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school and, in its shortened form ("Grosvenor School"), the name of a brief British-Australian art movement.[2] It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London.[1][3]:31 From 1925 to 1930 Claude Flight ran it with him, and also taught linocutting there; among his students were Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, Lill Tschudi and William Greengrass.[4]:400
 33 Warwick Square, the former home of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art (scaffolded, centre) | |
| Active | 1925–1940[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder | Iain Macnab |
| Location | , 51.4896°N 0.1418°W |
| Campus | 33 Warwick Square, Pimlico |
The school
The school had no formal curriculum and students studied what and when they wished. There were day and evening courses: life classes, classes in composition and design, and classes on the history of Modern Art. Frank Rutter taught a course entitled "From Cézanne to Picasso".[3]:31 Macnab's wife, the dancer Helen Wingrave, gave a dance course.[5]:9
The Grosvenor School closed in 1940.[6]
Legacy
The school did much to revive interest in printmaking in general, and particularly in the linocut, in the years between the Wars.[6] Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School", and their work commands high prices.[7]
In June–September 2019, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London hosted the first major exhibition presenting solely the output of the Grosvenor School alumni in a public museum; it was also the first major exhibition outside Australia to have considerable examples of the works by the Australian alumni Ethel Spowers, Dorrit Black and others.[8]
Alumni
Among those who studied at the school were:
- Sybil Andrews
- Margaret Barnard
- Dorrit Black
- Tom Chadwick (1912–1942)[6]
- Suzanne Cooper (1916–1992)
- Pamela Drew (1910–1989)
- Anna Findlay (1885–1968)
- Ronald Grierson (1901–1993)
- Mary Elizabeth Groom (1903–1958)
- Guy Malet (1900–1973)
- Alison McKenzie (1907–1982)
- Gwenda Morgan (1908–1991), wood engraver.
- Cyril Power
- Rachel Reckitt (1908–1995), wood engraver and sculptor
- Adolfine Mary Ryland (1903–1983)
- Ethel Spowers (1890–1947)
- Eveline Syme (1888–1961)
- Lill Tschudi (1911–2004)
- William Greengrass (1898–1972), wood engraver, sculptor, one time curator at the V&A
Spowers, Black and Syme became instrumental in organising exhibitions and promoting the school in Australia.
References
- Hal Bishop (2004). Macnab, Iain, of Barachastlain (1890–1967). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/64517 (subscription required)
- Gordon, Samuel; Leaper, Hana; Lock, Tracey; Vann, Philip; Scott, Jennifer. Gordon, Samuel (ed.). Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking (Exhibition Catalogue) (1st ed.). Philip Wilson Publishers. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-78130-078-7.
- Mike O'Mahony (2012). Imaging Sport at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art (1929–37); in: Mike Huggins, Mike O'Mahony (eds.) (2012). The Visual in Sport. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415585071. p. 19–34.
- Stephen Bury (ed.) (2012). Benezit Dictionary of British Graphic Artists and Illustrators, volume 1, Abbo – Lamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199923052.
- Lora S. Urbanelli (1988). The Grosvenor School: British Linocuts between the Wars (exhibition catalogue). Providence: Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art. ISBN 9780911517491.
- Tim Jones (27 June 2014). Wood engraving artist finally won recognition. The Press; available at Christchurch Art Gallery – Te Puna O Waiwhetu. Accessed March 2015.
- Colin Gleadell (17 Apr 2012). London Original Print Fair: Prints that move like lightening [sic]. Daily Telegraph.
- Gordon, Samuel; Leaper, Hana; Lock, Tracey; Vann, Philip; Scott, Jennifer. Gordon, Samuel (ed.). Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking (Exhibition Catalogue) (1st ed.). Philip Wilson Publishers. pp. Inside front flap and 24. ISBN 978-1-78130-078-7.
