Cutting Edge

The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was founded by the influential teacher, painter and wood-engraver, Iain McNab, in 1925. Situated in London's Pimlico district the school played a key role in the story of modern British printmaking between the wars. The Grosvenor School artists received critical acclaim in their time that continued until the late 1930s under the influence of Claude Flight who pioneered a revolutionary method of making the simple linocut to dynamic and colourful effect. Cyril Power, a lecturer in architecture at the school, and Sybil Andrews, the School Secretary, were two of Flight's star students. Whilst incorporating the avant-garde values of Cubism, Futurism and Vorticism, the Grosvenor School printmakers brought their own unique interpretation of the contemporary world to the medium of linocut in images that are strikingly familiar to this day and are included in the print collections of the world's major museums, including the British Museum, the MoMA New York and the Australian National Gallery. This new book which accompanies an exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery illustrates over 120 linocuts, drawings and posters by Grosvenor School artists and its thematic layout focuses on the key components which made up their dynamic and rhythmic visual imagery. For the first time, three Australian printmakers, Dorrit Black, Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme - who played a major part in the Grosvenor School story - are included in a major museum exhibition outside of Australia.