Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking, Dulwich Picture Gallery

At first thought, printmaking might not necessarily be associated with the radical avant-garde, but a new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery reveals how this art form was, in fact, a key feature of Modernist British art.

The interwar period saw a flowering of printmaking by the artists of the Grosvenor School, founded in Pimlico in 1925. With vast technological advances, printmaking became a way for identical images to be reproduced en mass. As a medium that straddled both art and advertising, these prints offer a nostalgic window into modern life with exuberant scenes of industry, transport, sport and leisure.

Arranged thematically, the show will feature over 100 prints, including work by the school’s leader, Claude Flight, who pioneered the linocut technique through his energetic urban impressions. See also the intense sense of movement that Sybil Andrews created in her linocuts, Cyril Power’s vivid images of London tube stations, Lill Tschudi’s colour-clashing prints as well as work by William Greengrass and Leonard Beaumont.

Dulwich Picture Gallery has also commissioned a new work by Japanese paper-cut artist Nahoko Kojima for the exhibition. Kojima's Sumi, an eight-metre-long crocodile cut from one sheet of paper will be displayed in the gallery's entrance hall. Famous for her large-scale paper cut sculptures, Kojima’s work seeks to celebrate the power of paper as a creative medium.