A BRAVE NEW WORLD BRITISH ART IN THE 20TH CENTURY 1 A BRAVE NEW WORLD BRITISH ART IN THE 20TH CENTURY Gerrish Fine Art By Appointment 35a Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6DT 0207 871 3089
[email protected] www.gerrishfineart.com Members of the International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) 2 3 TWOTWO YOUNG YOUNG RADICALS RADICALS GAUDIER-BRZESKAGAUDIER-BRZESKA & & BOMBERG BOMBERG 4 5 HENRI GAUDIER-BRZESKA (1891-1915) HENRI GAUDIER-BRZESKA (1891-1915) Signed by Brodzky and numbered ‘imp. 31/50’ in black This is the only linocut produced by the sculptor Henri ink. Printed on thick wove paper. It is unlikely the projected Gaudier-Brzeska. In his 1933 biography, Brodzky wrote, edition of 50 was completed. Printed posthumously. ‘Brzeska saw me at work, cutting designs at my home, and he decided to do some also. Being near Christmas time he Collections: V & A; British Museum; Metropolitan cut a version of his ‘Wrestlers’ to be used as a card’. Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Princeton University Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Gaudier based his design on a 1914 plaster relief of the Harvard Art Museums same subject now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Gaudier-Brzeska’s interest Literature: Carey & Griffiths, ‘Avant-Garde British in the subject of wrestlers was inspired by his visits to the Printmaking 1914-1960’, British Museum Publications London Wrestling Club, off Fleet Street, in 1912-1913. Ltd, 1990, cat. no. 18, p. 45 He made numerous drawings from life there, and wrote, in a letter to Sophie Gaudier Brzeska dated December 1912: ‘Last night I went to see the wrestlers – God! I have seldom seen anything so lovely – two athletic types, large shoulders, taut, big necks like bulls, small in the build with firm thighs and slender ankles, feet sensitive as hands, and not tall.