Collaboration in Practice: British Lithography 1800-2022

The premise for this exhibition and book on British Lithography 1800-2015 is to provide an overview, narrative and visual history of lithography in the UK. Including examples of lithographs from the Aberystwyth University Collection of Drawings and Prints, supported by works borrowed from other Collections and Institutions - the exhibition will seek to demonstrate how innovation, ingenuity, craft and skill have produced a rich diversity of graphic art through combination of collaboration and entrepreneurship. Significantly the exhibition will include the first examples of lithography ever to have been produced anywhere, Specimens of Polyautography, printed in London in 1801 as result of a collaboration between Royal Academicians and the printer Philipp Andre. Comprising a broad range of black and white and colour lithographs by some of the key proponents of the medium; the research intends to highlight how collaboration between artists and key printers have advanced the process of lithography and in turn, how lithography has been promoted to a wider public through specific projects, schemes and groups such as The Senefelder Club, Prints for Schools and print publishing by workshops such as the Curwen, Miller's Press and more recently by print studios based in Edinburgh, Glasgow and in London. Invented by Alois Senefelder in Munich in 1798, originally as a process for printing sheet music and text, the technical development of Fine Art Lithography appears to have been largely dependent upon the interaction and collaboration between artists and printers working together. Following the initial collaboration between Philipp Andre and Academicians from The Royal Academy in 1801, that tradition of collaboration in the UK was first maintained by two notable printers Thomas Barker of Bath (1776 - 1847) and Charles Hullmandel (1789 - 1850), both of whom made significant contributions to the development of drawing materials, techniques and processes used particularly in chromolithography. Other key collaborating printers include Thomas Way (1861 -1913), Stanley Jones (Curwen Studio) and more recently printers such as Elspeth Lamb, Alastair Clarke, Lee Turner and Paul Croft. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, particularly in Paris where there was a long history of interaction between artists, printers, engravers, chromistes and entrepreneurs; British printers became unionised, working for commercial firms in the main industrial cities and towns. Arguably, the evolution to a more Parisian style atelier did not occur in the UK until the establishment of the Curwen Studio in 1958 and emergence in the 1960s, of Open Workshops and Studios based in part, more upon the ideas emanating from American workshops such as ULAE and Tamarind. In the UK too there was also a strong demarcation between printing and printmaking; taught in separate departments at art schools, the latter was nonetheless dependent upon the former for process, technique and more importantly - expertise. Whilst some artists were unquestionably skilled printers, in reality most artists' lithographs in Britain were printed by journeymen either in their spare time, or as a subsidiary activity at a larger commercial concern. There were of course some enterprises such as The Curwen Press and The Devenish Brothers in London and the Harley Brothers in Edinburgh that did actively work with artists during the period. That lithography provided a means for the reproduction of drawings made directly on to the surface of a stone or plate, allowed for greater spontaneity and freedom of expression. Seen too as a painterly form of printmaking, lithography exploits the gestural capability of pencil, crayon, ink and reticulating tusche wash. Augmented by commercial techniques of transfer lithography, plates and photo plates and processes of colour printing, has resulted in a versatile process capable of printing just about every kind of image conceivable. As such the exhibition will likely include works by: Thomas Shotter Boys, Richard Parkes Bonnington, James McNeil Whistler, John Elwyn, and the great many artists who worked with Stanley Jones at the Curwen Studio including Ceri Richards, Josef Herman, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. More recent examples of lithographs from the Aberystwyth University Collection will include those shown at SPGW and any collected since 2000Planning for the exhibition and book is still current - a publisher Samson has been identified and is being approached. Venues for a touring show may include: Aberystwyth School of Art, Pallant House in Chichester, FE McWilliam Studio Gallery in Banbridge