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Michael Rothenstein RA(Click on Picture for a larger image)1908 - 1993
With a distinguished artistic background (his father was Sir William Rothenstein, and his brother became Director of the Tate Gallery) Rothenstein's work up until the late 1950s often had neo-romantic influences, and farm machinery with cockerels was a constant theme throughout his life. In the fifties he worked with William Hayter in Paris, and returned with a different style, becoming the most avant garde of the artists living in Bardfield, and the most determined to work on the international scene. His innovative contribution is in printmaking. He used a variety of objects - metal, plaster, fabric - anything that could be coated in ink, and from this went on to introduce an early interplay of photographic images in prints.
Black Pony |
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Lithograph
1955
Rothenstein took up lino cutting in with the encouragement of Edward Bawden, who is reputed to have said all that was required was some lino and a penknife. After 1959 wood replaced lino as his medium for printing, and later, in what was to be Rothenstein’s immense contribution to printmaking, he used a variety of objects – metal, plaster, fabric – anything that could be coated in ink, and from this went on to introduce an early interplay of photographic images in prints.
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Essex Wood Cutters |
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Lithograph
1946
One of series of School Prints. The idea behind School Prints Ltd was brilliant and simple. Commission good artists to create original lithographs which would be editioned in very large numbers and sold cheaply to those schools adventurous enough to subscribe to the scheme. Thus, would it be possible for children in school to enjoy a direct and continuous contact with real works of art. In her introductory letter to artists, Brenda Rawnsley, whose idea it was, wrote 'We are producing a series of auto-lithographs, four for each term, for use in schools, as a means of giving school children an understanding of contemporary art'.
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The Cockerel |
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Lithograph
1950
(Purchased with assistance from the Essex Heritage Trust)
Rothenstein's life-long interst in the cockerel as a subject is demonstrated here.
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