
The Curwen Studio, one of the UK’s most influential printmaking studios, specialising in lithography, is celebrating over fifty years of fine art printing with a special exhibition at Liverpool Hope University’s Cornerstone Gallery opening on Friday 5th June 2009, 17.30 to 20.00.
The Exhibition is to be officially opened by Rolf Harris together with a book signing and opportunity to speak with Alan Powers, author of Art & Print: The Curwen Story, published by Tate publishing.
Established in the late 1950s in response to rising demand from artists, the Curwen Studio helped revolutionise the way art and photography was reproduced for both creative and commercial purposes.
Within just a few years of opening, many famous names in the art world were working with the studio’s co-founder Stanley Jones to produce fine art prints in limited edition runs.
The studio’s ability to reproduce original artworks and photographs as high quality lithographic prints in numbered editions subsequently helped open up the UK market to a much wider audience of art lovers. In turn the artists themselves were able to start generating more income as their work became more accessible to collectors.
The commercial benefits and ethos of the studio have remained the same to this day; to provide a facility for artists to create original prints of the highest standard using the lithographic medium on a collaborative basis. This commitment to quality has ensured that over the last 50 years hundreds of leading and emerging artists have chosen to work with Curwen including Barbara Hepworth, Patrick Heron, Henry Moore, John Piper, Graham Sutherland, Man Ray, Elisabeth Frink, Paula Rego and Tracey Emin.
For this unique exhibition at Cornerstone, over 30 works have been carefully selected from both the Curwen archive and private collections.
Some of the rarely seen works include pieces by Henry Moore, John Bellany and Rolf Harris.
A Liverpool connection is also clearly evident with the inclusion of John Lennon’s first ever Lennon print entitled ‘Alphabet’, and a selection of Photographic Contone prints by Mike McCartney.
In addition to the exhibition, the Cornerstone Gallery is working with Liverpool’s Bluecoat arts centre to host a special printmaking workshop on Saturday 13th June with Tom Martin, Master Printer from The Curwen Studio, together with a guest talk by Mike McCartney. Tickets are limited and priced at £5 each. Please contact the Cornerstone Box Office
on 0151 291 3578 for Further information.
The Exhibition runs from Friday 5th June to Friday 4th September 2009.
Gallery open 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Free Admission.
The Cornerstone Gallery, Haigh Street, Liverpool, L3 8QB. Tel : 0151
291 3997, Fax : 0151 291 3191
E-mail : thecornerstonegallery@hope.ac.uk , Web –
www.hope.ac.uk/cornerstonegallery
For directions of how to get to The Cornerstone Gallery please visit
www.hope.ac.uk/gettingtohope/hopeateverton