GRAHAM SUTHERLAND

About

Graham Sutherland at Sylvester Fine Art

11 March 2015 sees the opening day of the latest exhibition at Sylvester Fine Art - Graham Sutherland.  A variety of work by this giant from the 20th century will be available to view and purchase at the Belsize Lane gallery.

The show will include a wonderful array of fine prints alongside some beautiful originals by this stellar British artist.  The exhibition will include prints from his final suite, Apollonaire: Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d’Orphée; pieces from his Pembrokeshire sketchbooks; a rare drypoint entitled Portrait of Dr Konrad Adenauer and many others.  There will be around 50 examples of work from this extraordinary British artist.

At the age of 20 London-born Sutherland was already a highly skilled etcher, as John Hayes said “capable of subordinating a wealth of descriptive detail to the exigencies of mass and rhythm”.  

Like his friend and contemporary Francis Bacon, Sutherland’s work is not always easy: in his work Sutherland developed an interest in natural forms of growth such as tree roots and thorn bushes, which he often depicted in close-up or from foreshortened viewpoints.  These organic growth formations, which remained central to Sutherland’s work throughout his career, often appeared menacing or threatening with their hints of human or animal like characteristics.

As David Whiting stated in 2006:  Sutherland began as a printmaker and this remained a key and recurrent activity.  He returned to the press at regular intervals and by the 1960s, it had become, once again, a primary concern.  And, while he began with line, colour came to predominate too, tentatively at first in the late 1940s lithographs, but, by the early ‘70s, it could be intense and other worldly.

The exhibition will run until 29 March; prices start from £750.