#edwardbawden

THE BBC HANDBOOK 1929: I am unashamedly guilty of buying books purely for their cover - as with this vibrant deco futuristic dust jacket designed by American poster artist E McKnight Kauffer. I managed to track down an unfaded copy in good nick. But then, on its arrival and looking inside, I was excited to unexpectedly discover a series of decorations by Edward Bawden. I’ve never seen them reproduced before, but they’re completely charming. All unsigned/uncredited, except one which confirms that they are indeed by him. He’d have been 26 at the time. I love how classical references are used as the basis for figures in a book about a modern form of technology and communication (something he and Eric Ravilious did around this time for their murals for Morley College). And the actual content is fascinating. Desmond MacCarthy’s section on ‘The Art of Broadcasting Talks’ has resonances today, having just given a zoom lecture for @pallanthousegallery - the intimacy of the platform when the audience is tuning in from their living room is the same. It’s strange now to think how in 1929 something like a radio could be a signifier for a brave new world. The handbook is full of adverts for batteries (which makes further complete sense of the name ‘wireless’ than just the radio waves) and descriptions of technical innovation, as well as outlining the BBC’s activities and innovations. E McKnight Kauffer captures all this perfectly in his striking cover (shown here on an Enid Marx Zig-Zag fabric - in fact a contemporary of Bawden at the Royal College of Art). #emcnightkauffer #edwardbawden #instabook #instabooks #artdeco #coverart @bbc #bbc #design #illustration #bbchandbook #radio #vintage #retro #modernbritishart #1920s #1920shouse #1929 #enidmarx (at Brighton and Hove) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKf391JFdJX/?igshid=yd0tebc6jfse

Some good charity book finds in St Albans yesterday: The Complete Adventures of Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans and Design - Edward Bawden/ Eric Ravilious. Took a packed lunch this time and steered clear of £5.50 sausage rolls. 👍 . . . #stalbans #ludwigbemelmans #edwardbawden #ericravilious https://www.instagram.com/p/B16EmvSnGMe/?igshid=1av19rjlrfbql

Charming little grey diagonal in this invite to a Paul Nash exhibition PV, as seen in the Edward Bawden Scrapbooks book. #grey #edwardbawden #paulnash #privateview #gallery #galleries #art #london #leicestersquare #1930s #30s #1938 https://www.instagram.com/p/CGiXlPwh8HQ/?igshid=ax9u5a8lnchn

EDWARD BAWDEN: the Palace Pier is a fairly constant backdrop to my daily morning swims in Brighton, and so I was interested to take a closer look at the wonderful linocut that is currently on display @pallanthousegallery in ‘An Outbreak of Talent: Bawden, Marx, Ravilious and their Contemporaries’. Bawden actually made two editions of this elongated print: one in 1958, and another nearly twenty years later. You can tell them apart as the earlier version has the word ‘PALACE’ in black, and the later one has it in black. It was apparently too big for a press so he had to walk all over it to ensure the ink took to the paper. Our copy was bequeathed by David Medd, an architect who knew Bawden and amassed a significant group of his prints. I got to know David as he used to visit the Gallery and map out the position of every work in the exhibitions. He did this in various institutions and I think they thought he was mad. But we struck a correspondence after I was called down to the desk one day, and he ended up bequeathing us his collection. It turned out that he and his wife Mary were hugely influential schools architects. His obituary described him as having revolutionised school design, replacing Victorian gloomth with light-filled rooms designed around the pupils that were influenced by the principles of Alvar Aalto. You can see why he would enjoy the playful imagery of Bawden, but also the appeal of his approach to architecture. (Clearly there’s a lot of artistic licence). As an aside, I have Bawden’s copy of ‘Brighton’ a book by Sacheverell Sitwell, with the faintly written words ‘Edward’s copy’ in the front. #brighton #edwardbawden #bawden #linocut #modernbritishart #pallanthousegallery #printmaking (at Pallant House Gallery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcv5HKFckq/?igshid=1jg1ywj65vx9z

TRAVELLERS’ VERSE: over the past few months the only travel most of us have been able to undertake has been virtual: through books, films, and in our memories. Of course, whilst that’s problematic for the travel industry, it’s a blessing for the planet. This year, I had trips planned to Seville and Tbilisi in Georgia that didn’t happen, but this pause has been no bad thing. It’s made me think that the last time civilians were so restricted from travel was in the Second World War, unless they were servicemen and women being sent into fields of war. At that time, Fredrick Muller Ltd published a series of poetry anthologies edited by W.J.Turner and Sheila Shannon, which paired poetry with original lithographs by contemporary artists. They were a handy size and provided a luxurious colour book at low cost. The artists included major figures in Modern British Art such as John Craxton, John Piper, Michael Ayrton and William Scott. Edward Bawden was commissioned to create a series of images to decorate a book of ‘Travellers’ Verse’ chosen by M.G.Lloyd Thomas. It brings together verse by poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Milton, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Ellliott, Lord Mary Wortley Montagu, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lawrence Durrell, and Anne French, Countess of Winchelsea. Bawden’s images take us on a journey from Norway, to Rome, Venice to Athens, onto Constantinople/Istanbul, into the Middle East and beyond. Bawden had travelled to Iraq and Iran as a War Artist, recording the Marsh Arabs, so he had some first hand experience, but really these images are completely fantastical - and suited to the imagination, as with the exoticism and orientalism of some of the verse. It is escapism of the first order, but these are delightful images. And as they are lithographs, they are effectively ‘original’ prints - here displayed on a Japanese fabric I bought in Kyoto. #edwardbawden #illustration #travel #modernbritishart #poetry #instabook #bookstagram #design #travelbook #travelbooks #travelwriter #1940sart #bawden (at Brighton and Hove) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQWeWTlYQN/?igshid=178yjg18angk6

TRAVELLERS’ VERSE: over the past few months the only travel most of us have been able to undertake has been virtual: through books, films, and in our memories. Of course, whilst that’s problematic for the travel industry, it’s a blessing for the planet. This year, I had trips planned to Seville and Tbilisi in Georgia that didn’t happen, but this pause has been no bad thing. It’s made me think that the last time civilians were so restricted from travel was in the Second World War, unless they were servicemen and women being sent into fields of war. At that time, Fredrick Muller Ltd published a series of poetry anthologies edited by W.J.Turner and Sheila Shannon, which paired poetry with original lithographs by contemporary artists. They were a handy size and provided a luxurious colour book at low cost. The artists included major figures in Modern British Art such as John Craxton, John Piper, Michael Ayrton and William Scott. Edward Bawden was commissioned to create a series of images to decorate a book of ‘Travellers’ Verse’ chosen by M.G.Lloyd Thomas. It brings together verse by poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Milton, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Ellliott, Lord Mary Wortley Montagu, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lawrence Durrell, and Anne French, Countess of Winchelsea. Bawden’s images take us on a journey from Norway, to Rome, Venice to Athens, onto Constantinople/Istanbul, into the Middle East and beyond. Bawden had travelled to Iraq and Iran as a War Artist, recording the Marsh Arabs, so he had some first hand experience, but really these images are completely fantastical - and suited to the imagination, as with the exoticism and orientalism of some of the verse. It is escapism of the first order, but these are delightful images. And as they are lithographs, they are effectively ‘original’ prints - here displayed on a Japanese fabric I bought in Kyoto. #edwardbawden #illustration #travel #modernbritishart #poetry #instabook #bookstagram #design #travelbook #travelbooks #travelwriter #1940sart #bawden (at Brighton and Hove) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQWeWTlYQN/?igshid=o55ul00jx7j2

TRAVELLERS’ VERSE: over the past few months the only travel most of us have been able to undertake has been virtual: through books, films, and in our memories. Of course, whilst that’s problematic for the travel industry, it’s a blessing for the planet. This year, I had trips planned to Seville and Tbilisi in Georgia that didn’t happen, but this pause has been no bad thing. It’s made me think that the last time civilians were so restricted from travel was in the Second World War, unless they were servicemen and women being sent into fields of war. At that time, Fredrick Muller Ltd published a series of poetry anthologies edited by W.J.Turner and Sheila Shannon, which paired poetry with original lithographs by contemporary artists. They were a handy size and provided a luxurious colour book at low cost. The artists included major figures in Modern British Art such as John Craxton, John Piper, Michael Ayrton and William Scott. Edward Bawden was commissioned to create a series of images to decorate a book of ‘Travellers’ Verse’ chosen by M.G.Lloyd Thomas. It brings together verse by poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Milton, Lord Byron, William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Ellliott, Lord Mary Wortley Montagu, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lawrence Durrell, and Anne French, Countess of Winchelsea. Bawden’s images take us on a journey from Norway, to Rome, Venice to Athens, onto Constantinople/Istanbul, into the Middle East and beyond. Bawden had travelled to Iraq and Iran as a War Artist, recording the Marsh Arabs, so he had some first hand experience, but really these images are completely fantastical - and suited to the imagination, as with the exoticism and orientalism of some of the verse. It is escapism of the first order, but these are delightful images. And as they are lithographs, they are effectively ‘original’ prints - here displayed on a Japanese fabric I bought in Kyoto. #edwardbawden #illustration #travel #modernbritishart #poetry #instabook #bookstagram #design #travelbook #travelbooks #travelwriter #1940sart #bawden (at Brighton and Hove) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCQWeWTlYQN/?igshid=1ji18wkjfseyt

#edwardbawden @waldoworks https://www.instagram.com/p/B0_p9VWHuRD/?igshid=utgf7hl82i5c