Liverpool artwork of the day – Friday November 2 2007. ‘Picasso’ by John Minnion at The Grange – Opens Sat Nov 3
‘Artists & Identity’ featuring 7 local artists opens at The Grange, Ullet Rd on Saturday November 3 2007. 14.00 – 20.30.
John Minnion moved to Liverpool in 2001 after 24 years working as a professional illustrator in London. He was political caricaturist for New Statesman throughout the 1980s, at the same time drawing hundreds of composers in The Listener. Over many years in The Times his work has embellished regular columns by the likes of Ned Sherrin, Lynne Truss, Nigella Lawson and
Anthony Howard. Other regular slots included weekly drawings in the Financial Times, Guardian, Sunday Express and Sunday Business.
In Liverpool, John started his own publishing imprint, Checkmate Books, in order to produce good quality, well-designed books of his drawings.
The first, ‘Glued to the Gogglebox’ contains caricatures of television personalities, with text by
Lynne Truss. ‘Uneasy Listening’ is about 20th century composers, and ‘Hitler’s List’ tells the stories of those artists, writers, scientists etc whom the Nazis labelled ‘degenerate’ because they were left-wing, modernist or Jewish. (Freud, Einstein, Chagall, Klee and Brecht, for example.)
John is working on his fourth Checkmate book, ‘Pool of Life’, which is a history of Liverpool in caricatures. It should be published in time for Christmas.
For further details see www.checkmatebooks.com
He draws with indian ink, using a mapping pen and brush, aiming for clean, economical lines that are balanced against flat black areas.
(Text c. John Minnion)
View more: http://www.gallery4allarts.com/john minnion intro.htm