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In spite of all the hooey about the Grosvenor School of Modern Art and the five-figure prices artists associated with the school are fetching (and, let's be honest, folks, they're never worth it), Claude Flight has not been that well-looked after. The reason is quite simple. There has been no biography, not even a monograph that summarises his life and career. Stephen Coppel, the leading British authority, certainly knows his stuff, but even so, bald facts of themselves, are unenlightening. So, I thought I might combine some images of less common prints by Flight with one or two ideas, for what they're worth. Until Julian Francis wrote 'Tom Chadwick and the Grosvenor School of Modern Art' (just published by the Fleece Press), no-one had written anything, so far as I know, about the actual way the school worked, so Julian's book is a welcome and sane addition to what we know. It resists hype - and we have had hype almost beyond endurance - and talks calm sense instead. Me, I sit down and write these posts, then re-read them some months later and am aghast at my own chutzpah. That aside, Flight deserves some calm appraisal. His life was just as underprinted as the prints he went on to make. It builds unwittingly from early failure to get into the Navy to receiving the Credit Agricole from the French government for his service during the first war. He was no more an ordinary soldier than he was an ordinary printmaker. He may well be irritating and posturing at times, but he is rarely dull. That he moved through the various fads and fashions of the twenties and thirties, is obvious; that contemporary writers still go on about the Vorticists and the thrill of modern life, is less so - by far. It was Flight himself who disagreed with them when he said, 'I am of no school'. I can understand that a newspaper journalist at the time needed a phrase like 'The Trogolodyte Artist' to get the attention of readers, but all the talk of Vorticism is not much better. Flight picked up things as he went along, there's no doubt of that but his work to unfold the underlying structures has something in common with his father's work on meteorites. The role that Edith Lawrence played when he eventually met her in 1922, doesn't seem to have been worked out in any detail, though. There is alot less known about her, and what she was doing at the time, but of all the partnerships that existed then, theirs may well prove to be one of the most compelling. It was certainly enduring. Fatefully, they left London during the Blitz for Wiltshire. Their studio off Marylebone Road was then bombed in 1941, and all Flight's lino-blocks were destroyed. They stayed on at Donhead St Andrews where Flight survived a devastating stroke in 1947. Lawrence, who was nine years his junior, looked after him for another eight years, untill he died forgotten in 1955. Not so very vorticist after all.
läs mer om bilden på www.galleriskott.se Solen värmer så skönt, snart våren kommer! Men nej, igen det börjar snöa ; blöta snöflingor fastnar på ögonfransar och sen droppar på mina kinder som kyli…
Mary E. Wrinch
Damien Vignaux
The Art Store would like to note that Lucie A. Mellert is being inducted into the Woodburn Circle Society, WVU Foundation’s most prestigious philanthropic society, for her donation of artwork creat…
Kretschmann-Winkelmann, Frieda (Berlin 23-10-1870 – 1939 Berlin)* German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. bookplate artist. After almost a century of darkness this wonderful artist finally has her deserved entry in the digital world. Self at the painting easel Every now and than I'm lucky to stumble over pictures of a past auction and meet an artist whom I otherwise probably never would have met. All too often these auction results and the pictures afterwards are sold only to be viewed online at a fee. This is of course very tempting and although I fully understand the commercial motivations I fundamentally try to avoid subscribing or using those sites. I believe a connoisseur ("Gourmet, Feinschmecker") with a keen eye, some financial room for manoeuvre and a healthy feeling for a solid future profit bought them (all or most, they appeared in two succeeding internet online auctions). Recently I found them again: now offered for a ten fold of the earlier auction result ! If that is deservedly is up to you: but do I love them ! She is said to be born as Frieda Kretschmann: there's no strict rule placing the maiden name before or after the husbands' in Germany. I think. She studied with Käthe Kollwitz and although it is stated she was a self taught sculptor in 1922 she studied in Hamburg with sculptor Ludwig Kunstmann (1877-1961) well known for his animal sculptures. Until 1935 she worked as a teacher in the painting school, the “Malschule des VdBK”. She sculpted a buste of Käthe Kollwitz and made an etching titled “Kathe und Milly(*)” and was a member of the “Deutschen Lyceum Club”, studied in Paris and London and lived for a considerable time with a catholic congregation in Brittany in France. She received a second price in 1916 in a bookplate contest, but this one (right) is by Franz Stassen (1869-1949). A Horst Kretschmann-Winckelmann lived at Kurfürstendam 126 in Berlin in 1926 and had a subscription to a philosophical magazine. (bookplate for Horst Kretschmann-Winckelmann) She was member of the VdBk ("Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen") 1901-1937 and board member 1927-1931 exhibiting in Berlin and Munich and with the VdBK 1901-1930. She is mentioned in most Artists Lexicons. ---------------------------------- (*) Milly surely refers to sculptor Milly Steger (1881-1948), who in 1917 was visited in her studio by Kathe Kollwitz. She was an admirer of Aristide Maillol and Auguste Rodin and was appointed "city-sculptor" of the city of Hagen. Her 4 bigger than life sculptured classic nudes, Caryatides, placed on the pillars of the local theater front caused a huge scandal at the time, now hard to understand. How far, in 2500 years since in Athens, have we "progressed" ? Caryatides in Hagen and from the Acroplis Temple in Athens And a (very Maillol) Caryatide at her home in Hagen "holding up" the balcony. -------------------------- * Although her exact day of birth is delivered to us through time no further family or genealogical data could be found. So much was destroyed in WW2 that this is often the case. Please help me find or confirm her family circumstances. And if possible send other examples of her work for sharing. She is possibly related to Lily (Braun-) Kretschmann (1865-1916) a feminist writer and daughter of Baron Hans von Kretschmann (1832-1899) and Jenny Auguste Frieda Karoline von Gustedt (1843-1903). Her sister Marie-Else von Kretschmann (1878-1920) was married to graphic artist and Secessionist Otto Eckmann (1865-1902). ------------------ All pictures borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.
Werner Drewes The Christmas Letter 1962
This one is marked Tampella. A still life definitely reminiscent of Marushka style. Tampella is a fabric company from Finland that mostly produces large scale prints in the spirit of Marimekko. I think this probably is from the 1980s. Another Tampella fabric stretched like a canvas, Markushka style. This is by artist Marjatta Seppalla. Finally, an illegibly-signed flower printed canvas, also presumably vintage.
läs mer om bilden på www.galleriskott.se Solen värmer så skönt, snart våren kommer! Men nej, igen det börjar snöa ; blöta snöflingor fastnar på ögonfransar och sen droppar på mina kinder som kyli…
Kerstin Maria (Maja) Fjaestad (neé Hallén) (1871 – 1961) Swedish textile and graphic artist, (portrait) painter and woodblock printer Spring in Sweden. For a long time I’ve had a strong admiration for the flower prints of Swedish Maja Fjaestad. She is most and almost exclusively known and loved in here home country. To this day. Her prints wandering hardly out of Scandinavia. Maja Hallén attended the Artists’ Association School in Landskrone in 1890–92 and exhibited for the first time in 1897. Later in London presenting her skills as a portrait painter. She created a style very much of her own carving out the complete outline of the composition (all but the later blacks) from the block and colouring this background block "the Japanese way". With a wash of soft pastel colors. Secondly printing color components with additional blocks. This is why you never see two the same prints. She didn’t number editions so a good guess is there must be hoards about. Very recognizable prints. Bread and butter prints. If you’ve seen one you’ll never miss another. She is most remembered by these simple but strong compositions high in emotional decorative value. In Sweden. A promoter of fine craftsmanship, she helped found the Arvika Konsthantverk handicraft association. On many occasions the wearing of the prints (or blocks) is showing. Probably she didn’t use very good quality paint or inks or printing papers. Many of the prints I've seen have faded dramatically. This maybe also due to domestic Swedish circumstances (the light, wood fires). Maybe a Swedish reader (there are !) can enlighten me. This selection showing you end of winter and the international harbingers of spring. Besides the flower compositions (I collected some 50 different from old auction catalogues) the two bigger winter scenes and the titmouse print showing she was quite capable of rendering a landscape in a woodblock print. Maja married Gustav Fjaestad (1868-1948), a loved and very respected Swedish painter of mostly classic winter landscapes. Gustav is represented in most Swedish museums. I found this wonderful and idyllic picture of two amorous starlings (also a token of spring) attributed to her husband Gustav. It says mixed medium, but my guess is it is possibly also a print. Owning one or two of these small flower prints by Maja Fjaestad is a long cherished wish (any one of these springflower prints will do just fine). I'll happily comply with any readers request to do a follow up on the art of this Swedish couple. Just ask and leave a comment.
läs mer om bilden på www.galleriskott.se Solen värmer så skönt, snart våren kommer! Men nej, igen det börjar snöa ; blöta snöflingor fastnar på ögonfransar och sen droppar på mina kinder som kyli…
