Sutherland (Graham)

no.9 in the first series of ten Contemporary Lithographs, a pioneering project to make original art available to the masses, either as affordable art for the home or for display in schools and other public institutions. It was the combined brainchild of the young manager of the Zwemmer Gallery, Robert Wellington, the passionate educationalist, Henry Morris, the artist, John Piper, in particular amongst a circle of young contemporary artists, mostly from the Royal College of Art, and the specialist printers, Oliver Simon and Harold Curwen, of the Curwen Press. Unlike the high quality reproduction prints that Wellington had hitherto been selling at Zwemmer’s as a way of disseminating mainly continental modern art, these prints were auto-lithographs, created by the artists’ own hands as original multiples. Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) trained at Goldsmiths where he took to etching, which led him into a number of commercial graphic commissions. But he was offered an exhibition at Zwemmer’s as soon as he met Wellington, who also introduced him to Oliver Simon, from when he adopted auto-lithography as his preferred medium. This composition is one of his very earliest.

colour-printed auto-lithograph, 510 x 765 mm. (20 x 30 in), [Artmonsky 9], a central vertical crease, some repaired tears and other handling handling creases,