A unique chance to hear talks by four leading experts on Ravilious, followed by a wine and canapé reception. There will also be an opportunity to buy books from fine press publishers Fleece Press, Mainstone Press, and Wood Lea Press.
The ‘context’ will be historic and contemporary – the Towne / Cotman tradition enlivened by Binyon at the British Museum and Nash at the Royal College of Art, plus contemporaries of Ravilious, particularly Edward Bawden.
Peyton Skipwith is the Former Deputy Managing Director of The Fine Art Society; Edward Bawden’s Executor; author of Entertaining à la Carte: Edward Bawden and Fortnum & Mason, and co-author with Brian Webb of several books in the ‘Design’ series, including Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious, Paul and John Nash and Harold Curwen and Oliver Simon.
Researchers into Eric Ravilious’s work have often had the opportunity to enter the magic world of his scrapbooks, which are still owned by members of his family. This talk will show the variety of material contained in them, and the insights they give to his visual imagination and use of sources.
Alan Powers is Professor of Architecture and Cultural History at the University of Greenwich. He curated the exhibition Eric Ravilious: imagined realities at the Imperial War Museum in 2003, and is the author of ‘The making of High Street’ in The story of High Street (Mainstone Press, 2008).
Ravilious’s work as an engraver and designer is well known, but how did he do it? ‘Work in progress’ will look at Ravilious’s working methods from rough drawings to finished jobs.
Brian Webb is a designer, visiting Professor at the University of the Arts, London and Past President of the Chartered Society of Designers. He has designed and produced several books on British design, including Eric Ravilious’ Submarine dream: lithographs and letters (1996). He curated and designed Edward Bawden in the Middle East, an exhibition and accompanying book, for the Fry Gallery, Saffron Walden (2008) and contributed ‘The Roller Coaster Ride, 1945 to present’ to London Transport posters, a century of art and design (2008).
As a watercolourist Ravilious found inspiration in the Sussex Downs, a landscape that suited his technique and temperament. Focusing on six notable paintings, this talk explores the relationship between artist and place, teasing out hidden histories and introducing the people behind the scenes.
Writer and historian James Russell is the author of Ravilious in pictures: Sussex and the Downs, which will be published by Mainstone Press in November 2009, and the essay ‘High Street at seventy’ in The story of High Street (Mainstone Press, 2008).
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