We are pleased to announce a new Arts Council Collection touring exhibition The Printed Line opens at Torre Abbey Museum, Torquay, 6 April – 2 June 2019, then tours the UK; showcasing work by artists including David Hockney, Bridget Riley, Patrick Caulfield and Frank Stella.
The exhibition showcases the work of nearly 60 artists who have used a variety of printmaking techniques to exploit the potential of the printed line, from the thick velvety line of drypoint and the heavy cross-hatching of etching to delicate wood engraving and boldly coloured screenprints. The use of colour will be explored in screenprints by Bridget Riley and Kenneth Martin, as well as Simon Patterson's witty lithograph, which reworks the lines of the London tube map.
The exhibition features a number of celebrated artists, spanning the 20th century to the present day, including: Walter Sickert's masterly cross-hatched etching The Old Middlesex (c.1910), Ben Nicholson's rich drypoint Halse Town 1949 (1949), a bold etching by Eduardo Chillida and David Hockney's pared-down linear etchings.
Included in this exhibition is Henri Matisse’s Le Grand Bois, the largest and most important of four woodcuts which he made in 1906-07 and was one of the three Fauve woodcuts shown at Matisse's second solo exhibition in 1906. Le Grand Bois, based on a preparatory brush and ink study, illustrates Matisse's interest in an expressive counterpoint of ornamental patterns resulting from the use of a variety of brushstrokes.
While at the Royal College of Art, David Hockney discovered the poems of the Greek poet Cavafy (1863-1933). He admired them for their clear language and matter-of-fact way of talking about homosexuality. From this he created fourteen etchings which portrayed the visual interpretation of the mood and sensuality of the verse. The work included in this exhibition is based on a photograph of Hockney’s friends, the artists Mo McDermott and Dale Chisman. The striking bed cover was created using aquatint, an etching process that gives areas of softer tone to an image.