October 22nd, 2010

Sarah Young exhibition running until 21st November!

Sarah Young poster

Sarah Young poster

Our autumn exhibition of prints and posters by Sarah Young opens this Saturday. Preview is on Friday evening (22nd), 6-9pm. Drop in if you’re free.

More images of Sarah’s new work will be posted over the next few days … watch this space!

July 10th, 2010

Charley Harper essay from Delicious Industries

Ternscape, limited edition giclee print, 465 x 340 mm, £195

Ternscape, limited edition giclee print, 465 x 340 mm, £195

Charley Harper

04.08.1922 – 10.06.2007

“I don’t try to put everything in, I try to leave everything out. I never count the feathers in the wings; I just count the wings.”

Charlie Harper was an American Modernist who developed a distinctive style of illustration that he called Minimal Realism. Harper grew up on his family’s farm in the Appalachian foothills where he built “an affinity for nature that would one day find expression in my designs”.

He began studying at the Art Academy of Cincinnati as a realist painter before being drafted, spending three years in Army Intelligence during the Second World War. Harper continued to sketch, however, and in this very different environment learned how to “grasp the important elements of a scene quickly and put them down with minimum detail.”

After his time in the Army, Harper completed his studies and graduated in 1947. He was awarded the Stephen H Wilder Traveling Scholarship, which enabled he and his wife Edie to travel the West and South of America painting and enjoying nature.

On their return Charley became a tutor at the Art Academy of Cincinnati (where he would stay for 20 years) and also began working in a commercial studio. However, he soon found the latter wasn’t an environment for realism and that all they wanted was illustrations of “happy housewives”.

Increasingly frustrated with the limitations of realism he began to experiment with a new style where he replaced perspective with two-dimensional shapes, reduced to only straight lines and curves. The idea was “…to push simplification as far as possible without losing identification”. This new style combined the ability to caricature and simplify.

“I reduced all lines and edges to straights and curves and began to render with mechanical drawing instruments – ruling pen, compass, French curve, T-square, triangle. I saw forms as hard-edged shapes of flat or textured colour with enough lines added to complete identification. I began to include black and white in every full-colour picture (forbidden in realism); spanning the value scale added sparkle and zip, and all colours seem to me richer in the presence of black and white. I didn’t discard depth, but achieved it by such devices as overlapping shapes and colour and size relationships.”

Harper’s use of pure ink whites rather than unprinted paper is one of the reasons why his prints still appear so vibrant.

“Nature subjects, I found, are ideally suited to this interpretation. Birds and fish in particular have built-in functional beauty imposed by their habitats and require only a little distortion of what’s there already, a thinning of lines and a simpler statement of shape. In perching and walking birds, and some insects, there exists a spatial tension because of the heavy body supported by slender legs that I find satisfying.”

In 1948 Ford Publications commissioned Harper to illustrate the recipe section in the December issue of ‘Ford Times’, Ford Motor Company’s travel magazine. This was the start of a successful collaboration that would last until 1982 and the reason that so many of the wonderful prints we know today exist.

His illustrations proved popular with readers, who often requested copies. So in 1952 the illustrations for a wildlife article, ‘Eight Familiar Fish’ were also offered to readers as a series of screen prints for $5 each. The prints were hand-screen printed by Charley and Edie in their basement – Charley created the stencils whilst Edie mixed the inks.

These limited edition prints were so successful that in June 1953 a second set followed concluding a series of articles named ‘Horseless Carriage Adventures’ and depicting national landmarks. Then in November 1954 a series of bird prints were offered which accompanied the article ‘Feeding Station Birds’.

The bird prints became an annual tradition eventually comprising 73 designs. For each November issue Harper would not only illustrate an article about birds and produce the limited edition prints but would also write it. In total, he illustrated over 90 articles and 30 covers for Ford Times.

Throughout the 50′s and 60′s Harper enjoyed commercial success illustrating the popular cook book, ‘Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two’ and being commissioned by The Golden Press to illustrate ‘The Golden Book of Biology’ and ‘The Animal Kingdom’, all very sought after publications.

Harper found the greatest pleasure in nature illustration and throughout his career designed many posters for non-profit organisations including Cincinnati Zoo, Cincinnati Nature Center, Hamilton County (Ohio) Park District, the Michigan Audubon Society and the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania.

Other notable works include the design of two ceramic tile murals both in Cincinnati; one for the Federal Building, based on American wildlife and one for the new Convention Center, titled ‘Space Walk’. Also two painted murals in Dearborn; one depicting Michigan wildlife in the Ford General Staff Office building cafeteria, and another on ‘transportation around the world’ in the Ford Rotunda.

June 18th, 2010

Announcing – Charley Harper at Castor and Pollux

eskimocurlew

We are very pleased to announce an exhibition of vintage prints by Charley Harper at Castor and Pollux from 3 July 2010 and throughout the Summer.

The show includes designs made for The Ford Times in the 1950s and ’60 as well as later, limited edition screen prints of his iconic birds and animals.

You can see all the prints that are available here.

There are giclee prints here.

You can see posters here.

For more information about this hugely innovative graphic artist click here.

May 12th, 2010

Paul Catherall print offer

March 19th, 2010

Next show – Julie Doucet linocut illustrations

Coming up … linocut illustrations by Canadian graphic artist Julie Doucet.

Also featured in the bookshop will be Julie’s comics and graphic novels.

Click here to view the show online.

March 16th, 2010

Print exhibition – Julie Doucet – 23 April

Stella, I love you, lino print, 225 x 240 mm, £ 175

Here are some of the prints which will be on show in the gallery from 23 April.

You can find out more about the artist here.

March 16th, 2010

Next Exhibition – Julie Doucet

We at Castor & Pollux are very pleased to announce our first exhibition in 2010. The sun has come out at last, and we are preparing for an show of lino cuts from Julie Doucet.

Opening on the 23 April, this small, but perfectly formed group of prints were made as illustrations for ‘Chroniques de New York’ by Jean-Francois Jouanne.

Born in 1965 in Montréal, Julie Doucet was educated at a girl Catholic school. Then she began Fine Arts studies, first at the CÉGEP du Vieux Montréal (the equivalent of junior college), later at the Université du Québec à Montréal, where she completed a degree in printing arts. During her studies Julie Doucet took interest into drawing comics, and eventually devoted herself completely to that funny art form. Her comic book, Dirty Plotte began life as a photocopied fanzine. In it Doucet would document in french and in english her day to day life, her dreams, angsts, fantasies. The series was first published in 1991 by Drawn & Quarterly, in the comic book form. Shortly afterwards she won the prestigious Harvey Award for Best New Talent. She left for New York city, where she spent a year related in  ’My New York Diary’  In the 1990s, she abandoned the medium of comic books and went back to printing. Woodcuts, linocuts, silkscreen printing, followed by an abundant production of artist’s books. She took part in many group exhibitions and, finally, in 2006 she had her own solo exhibition of her print work at the galerie B-312. Julie Doucet now writes and makes collages. Mostly.

See more of her prints here.

June 5th, 2009

Recent private views at Castor and Pollux

Here are a few pictures of openings at Castor and Pollux over the last few months. We will add more as our future exhibitions take place. You are welcome yo join us at any of our events. Just add you email to our mailing list on the home page.

May 12th, 2009

Paul Davis – Drawings – 23rd May-20 June

*NEW* Paul Davis poster

Not content with only ONE festival exhibition, we at Castor and Pollux have a second exhibition for the month of May.

A ‘snippetist’, Paul Davis says he is fascinated by everything, all of the time, and produces at least 300 drawings a month. ‘I am interested in the construction of images but that part of picture making isn’t as important as the message. Not in my work, anyway.’

All historical deeds, A3 4 colour screenprint

 

Paul Davis has brought us a selection of his algorithm drawings on sketchbook and found paper.

 

Read Liz Farrelly’s review of the show on Eye here. http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=211#more-211


March 13th, 2009

Andrew Mockett – Exhibition 27 March

Our first exhibition for this year is Andrew Mockett. The framing room was busy with a stack of Andrews’ busy, bright wood cuts.

In addition to his prints, we will also have handmade books, silk scarves, cards, card sculptures and wrapping paper.

Details of sizes will be up very soon. Or, pop into the gallery anytime from 27th March to see them!

March 4th, 2009

Becky Blair – Brighton festival show

We are delighted to announce that our May exhibition as part of Brighton Festival Fringe will be of canvases and prints by Becky Blair. The festival runs from 2nd to 24th of May. 

Click here for more images of Becky’s work.

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