Print Response
Andrew Kulman
18 January - 29 January 2010
Print response is the title of a small show of new work that has been made partly as a response to printed work in the BIAD School of Art Archive held at the Birmingham City University Art and Design Archives at Margaret Street. The archive work in question has been selected from the fabulous collection of 'between the Wars' poster collection and in choosing the images I allowed myself to consider a criteria for final selection. Many of the images on view reflected my ongoing interest and research on artists involved in the Curwen Press and in doing so I looked at artists such as Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman and Paul Nash, to name but a few. The posters in this show reflect a period when stylistic movements crossed over from one another, we can see how an Arts and Craft aesthetic moves seamlessly into Art Deco, then into a surrealism that sees clocks becoming personified into shop attendants. Behind all these images is a bold belief in the 'graphic image', this was the second 'Golden' period of lithographic posters following on from Toulouse Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, and Jules Cheret and the posters of the Fin de Siecle.
I have chosen to make new images inspired by the selection of posters using the print facilities at Margaret Street. The medium I have chosen for the for the work is linocut, the reason being that I have been able to respond to and repeat some of the wonderful curvilinear line work that denotes the fluidity of the 20's/30's posters. In producing the new work I have looked at the content shown on the original posters and have taken elements and incorporated them into my own pieces. Of particular interest was the way in which artists chose to anthropomorphise or personify objects ad so we see Clock figures alongside almost human Angler fish and a 'Jack in the Box' turns out to be an animated London Underground symbol. Of particular interest to me is the use of decorative elements and stylised foliage, again I have used these devices in my work in order to suggest an artificial setting. Perhaps the most obvious response is the Cat's Head where I have repeated the bold dynamic presence and allowed the perspective of the road to become lines of interference with the cat's face.
The poster collection in the BIAD School of Art Archive has such a wealth of imagery and choice of subject matter that any selection has to have an element of subjectivity and in making my final selection and choice of hanging arrangement I have simply looked at making tenuous relationships using the content but also tried to best represent the wonderfully fresh colours of images that are now nearly 80 years old.
Professor of Illustration Andrew Kulman has recently joined the School of Art as MA Histories of Art and Design Course Director. The exhibition will run from 18 January to 1 February 2010 in the foyer and print corridor of the School of Art in Margaret Street.