Consuming Interest
Pictures for the Poor
By LESLIE ADRIAN
'Too CHEAP' is not a phrase one meets every day in these mercenary times, but there are some objects which people hesitate to buy if their price seems to them to be too low. Artists' prints are one group of such things. Not only will picture- buyers recoil from them as 'mere prints', contaminated by their contact with ma- chinery, but they underestimate their value because of their cheapness. Mr. Robert Erskine, director of St. George's Gallery (7 Cork Street, London WI, REGent 3660), still finds that the genuinely low prices of original artists' prints Ca fortunate yet fortuitous aspect of printmaking')—to- gether with the public's unawareness that such prints are genuine works of art and not copies—stand in the way of their being appreciated as they should.
The artist's print has a growing and enthusiastic following among people who have tired of reproductions and, having more taste than money, have discovered this source of cheap originals—not, it is true, unique, but from the artist's own hand, and expressing his intentions no less truly than his paintings.
In London at the moment St. George's Gallery and The Zwemmer Gallery both have fine general exhibitions showing a splendid variety of lithographs, aquatints, etchings, woodcuts, and engravings. The St. George's Gallery are pioneers in the
business of modern British printmaking and they have one or two general exhibitions each summer, as well as monthly one-man shows throughout the-year. Their present exhibition finishes at the end of the month and will be followed immediately by another during August. The exciting show at Zwemmer's (26 Litchfield Street, WC2, TEMple 1793) runs until August 8. Prices, at both exhibitions, range from 4 to 18 guineas, with the largest choice between 6 and 12 guineas (unframed). The artists include some of the most famous (John Piper, Michael Rothenstein, Michael Ayrton, Ceri Richards, Anthony Gross) as well as many new and relatively unknown. Apart from their exhibitions, St. George's and Zwemmer can always produce a fine selection of the works of British print- makers. Anyone who wishes to be kept informed of their current stock and future shows should write and ask to be put on the mailing lists.
The Whitechapel Gallery recently staged an exhibition called The Graven Image mostly of material from St. George's Gallery, the catalogue of which not only contained what one might term Mr. Erskine's manifesto, but also a brief explanation of the processes behind the production of these works of art. They all start as 'mirror images', either crayoned on limestone; engraved on copper, wood or linoleum; or etched with acid into metal. Generally the British artist himself 'pulls' the series of prints with his own hands, as few as a dozen or as many as seventy-five (thirty to fifty is an average edition), numbering and signing each print. When the edition is completed the plate is usually destroyed, but occasionally it is sold as a mural decoration itself, having been suitably and inoffensively defaced to prevent its further use as a printing block.
The price of these prints depends only partly on the artist's reputation. It is also directly influenced by the elaborateness of the chosen process, the size of the picture, and the length of the series (there is a relationship here with the limited edition book business, but on the whole without its dubieties). Mounts and frames add another 3 to 5 guineas to the cost. Frequent- ly, when a good edition is sold out, the prints appreciate in value and you will have to pay more than the original price.
The Redfern Gallery (20 Cork Street, WI, REGent 1732) specialises in the prints of artists from countries where the tradition of graphic art is longer and firmer than ours. The great painters at the end of the last century were fascinated by colour-printing, though after them there was a period when very little was done until Picasso, Matisse, Braque and others found lithography peculiarly well suited to their abstract idiom. The price range of continental prints is much greater, and the editions far larger than English prints. You could spend 150 guineas on a Bonnard and one Picasso is listed at 1250 guineas! But anyone prepared to spend between 8 and 20 guineas for a framed picture can choose an exciting work of art. I even saw a little framed Renoir etching for 10 guineas. This gallery will buy anything back at the price you gave for it.
The devotee of Old Master prints can have some happy hunting at Colnaghi (14 Old Bond Street, WI, HYDe Park 1943) with as little as £5 or £10 in his pocket. Recently I saw there Hollar etchings for £5, decorative Piranesi engravings from £10 to £15 and, to my surprise, a tiny Durer woodcut for as little as £25.
For paintings, not prints, there are a number of small galleries around London showing the work of young and not widely- known artists where highly satisfying oil paintings, watercolours and sculptures may be bought for sums ranging from 5-6 guineas to 30 guineas. Amongst many such places (they tend to come and go) is Lord's Gallery (26 Wellington Road, NW8) and the Drian Gallery (7 Porchester Place, W2). The latest to open its doors is the Parkway Gallery in Camden Town (58 Parkway, NW I, GULliver 8658) run by an artist, Harry Gordon, and his wife. They stage a new exhibition every three weeks. No picture costs more than £30 and there are many between £5 and £15, and Mr. Gordon arranges for any picture bought from his gallery to be elegantly framed for a small charge.
A friend tells me that he bought a picture from a well-known artist, and paid for it in instalments. Provided the buyer is not too proud, some artists will agree to this. Buying directly from the artist means that he gets the whole of the price, and that you pay less: you have cut out a middleman.
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