Lecture Notes Edward Bawden Art vs Design Kristian Purcell

8/9/2019 Lecture Notes Edward Bawden Art vs Design Kristian Purcell

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By Kristian Purcell

Edward Bawden is often thought of as a designer rather than anartist, primarily because of the sheer volume of commercial workthat he produced and the popularity of that work with the public and

commissioning companies alike. But how did Bawden see his ownwork? What interested him and what did he bring to those worksmade for non-commercial reasons? I will examine the works hemade away from the marketing of products and hope to show aneglected aspect of Bawdens oeuvre.

The designer label naturally originates education at the Designschool of the Royal College of Art. At that time it was easier to applyfor a scholarship for industrial design than the more popular fineart, and probably suited the young Bawden and his Cambridge artschool education better. At this time this meant calligraphy, or more

specifically Writing and Illumination. This route importantly leadshim into contact with three artists that would be of such influence tohis art and life, Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash, and Douglas Percy Bliss.

When Bawden joined the Design School, he had entered a schoolvery much considered the lesser partner to the RCAs paintingschool - not least of all by the college principle William Rothenstein.The college had been established to improve the quality of industrialdesign, but it was the belief, it seems, that the solution to thisproblem was to produce painters heavily trained in figure drawing,

rather than the designers who hadnt required a drawingexamination to get in. Sub-standard painting applicants who didntpass Rothensteins drawing exam were kicked into the designschool.

Writing in his book Edward Bawden, Bliss wondered if Bawden andRavilious had not got the better deal as the Elect (as theyconsidered themselves) in the painting school had a pretty solid dietof figure drawing and painting while over in design they had thefreedom to do pretty much what they liked. Bliss wrote that Bawdenreluctantly acknowledged that his drawing was seen as poor by RCA

standards, but always resented this. He noted the primitive natureof Bawdens figures, which he refers to as Anglo Saxon in nature,


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Henri MatisseArabesque,1924.

ranson andhe Nude,1927.

and may well owe more to the brass rubbings Bawden made atschool than the traditional life class he frequently dodged at theRCA, where he left it to painters like his friend Bliss to deal withdays on end shading breasts and thighs, and searching for solidity.Examples of his brass rubbings can be seen in the watercolour of his

School room.

But Bliss doesnt deny that these flatfigures worked for Bawden. They didwhat he required of them and no more,often vehicles for his humour or fittingin the place of a decorative schemerather than realistically rendering lightand shade or even accurate form of thehuman figure. It is important toremember that a drawing should have

a purpose. It cant achieve everythingat once and Bawden knew well what hecould and couldnt do, and as by theend of his time at the RCA he was

increasingly busy with graphic designcommissions, his clients were also very awareof what he was good at and in those on thebook at the Curwen Press he was the mostfrequently used of all their artists. Blisssummed-up his friends range at the time bysaying that Line was his weapon not solid

form, not tone, not atmosphere.

An example of Bawden really making the mostof his abilities with line is the engravingBranson and the Nude.Bawden first came intocontact with engraving at a regular eveningclass at the Cass institute. TheBranson was George Bransonwas a fellow student at theRCA and here stands at his

easel, possibly in his own digs,painting a nude. The life modelin the study is very revealingabout where Bawdens artisticinterests lay at the time. Thefigure reclines on a patternedchair that at first evokes aMatisse composition, butunlike a Matisse such asArabesque. Matisse balancesthe decorative effects of fabric

with the lines of the figure and is interested in both. In Bawdenswork the figure is almost completely dominated by the pattern to

Detail fromBransonand theNudec.1927.


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BrightonSnowstorm,1956

the point that the lines of the legs and waist are worked to fit in withand reciprocate the floral motif than with accurate human anatomy:in fact the lower leg seems quite dislocated from the rest of thebody. The chair is almost a cardboard cut out such is its flattening.The shadows are interestingly dealt with in the use of a broad bandof repeated marks that contrast with the clearly delineated featureson the other side. The face is no more than fudged and shows a lackof interest in features not ripe for a satirical or witty treatment. Itseems that rather than Matisses enjoyment of depicting the femaleform against fabrics, as he did over and over again, Bawden sharessome of Cezannes discomfort in drawing the nude from life. This issurely the only area in which Bawden allowed the shyness of hisyouth to impinge on his artistic output.

The face of Branson is muchmore confidently dealt with:

Bawden has his protagonistunconsciously sticking histongue out like a child deepin uninhibited concentration.In the background Bawden ison much happier ground ashe takes obvious pleasure infilling every available spacewith little details andbeautifully executeddecorative motifs, such as

the figures of eight in thefrieze above Branson or thefire place by the model.

Here Bawden is in control and the way he has laid out thecomposition cleverly puts the viewers focus where he wants it. Lateron in his career Graham Sutherland referred to Bawdens lineengraving as the epitome the very heart and flesh of engraving.The lines are resonant and astringent. Its technical origins may befound, perhaps, among the early masters of art. Indeed, even in

those early years everything he did had line at the very heart of it.

A master engraver then, but theprinting medium that Bawden ismost famous for is lino cutting. Bythe mid 50s Bawden had beenworking with lino for 30 years,mostly for commercialcommissions, and was anincredibly experienced exponent ofthe medium. Pieces like Brighton

Snowstorm (1956) andLiverpool Street Station (1960) are incredible technical

Detail fromBransonand the

Nudec.1927.


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Liverpool St.Station , 1960

Tower ofLondon, 1966

achievements and highly innovative in terms of the way that linocan create textures, patterns and tones. The semi-translucentcream-coloured ink partially obliterates the carefully depictedfeatures of the pier and is strongly contrasted by the clarity of theareas not covered, such as the life boat and figures. The length ofthe pier takes your eye into the heart of the snow storm and thenalong a montage of Brighton motifs: a caf, promenade, and, theonion domes that reference the pavilion.

The epic and gothic Liverpool Street Station is not only an excellentexample of his treatment of the lacelike ironwork that would laterfeature so strongly in his series of markets, but also is surprising forhis use of washes of colour. Bawden was highly creative in theinking stage and the dusty pink in the background and the fadingout of the details of the wing of the station under the arch are not

just lino cutting effects but are created by careful use of the rollerand very particular translucencies of ink in effect Bawden isprinting painted marks more likea one-off monotype. Theselayering effects and inventiveprocesses are less the province ofblock-printmaking (especiallywhen you consider the variationbetween impressions) and seemto me to relate to the paintingworld. Bawdens son Richard has

described the process used on The Tower of London (1966):Here my father is using the widthof the roller like a paintbrush inthe sky area.

Such a painterly approach and the dark gothic mood of the mid-sixties work evokes the work of an artist that both worked with TheCurwen Studios as Bawden did and was also born in the same yearas Bawden: John Piper. His Little Cressingham was made in theearly 1980s but is typical Piper dramatic, full of contrast, and use amixture of wax, ink and watercolour to create light and texture. TheNine London Monuments and images like Lindsell Church evoke
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John Nash,BerkshireLandscape,date unknown.

WestminsterAbbey, 1966

Piper, not least because of thehandling of the architecture butalso for their tone andatmosphere - thosecharacteristics Bliss accused theearly drawings of lacking. Byscratching on the lino on a piecelike Westminster Abbey(1966)Bawden creates an effect similarto the wash and wax resist ofPiper or scratching through thepaint layers like a Turner orRavilious.

In his actual painting

Bawden started far lessassured, with smallstudies in wash and greenink. It was thewatercolours of Paul Nashand his brother John thatshowed Bawden how onemight go about makinglarger pictures inwatercolour. John NashsBerkshire Landscape(date

unknown) in the CecilHiggins collection is a classic example of the style and subjectmatter that inspired Bawden and his close friend and paintingcompanion Ravilious. When working on pictures for a group showwith Ravilious and Bliss in the late 20s he struggled with thetransition to these larger works but was resolute in the direction heneeded to go. Ravilious was concerned to see his friend havingdifficulty with his pictures but Bawden affirmed that there was noturning back possible and he claimed it was easier painting large.While Ravilious could be said to exceed in technique the example of

his tutor, as can be seen in the striking image of from his SussexDowns series, Bawdens watercolours by 1935 still retained aflatness and lack of depth, as can be seen in that years 8.30Sunday Newhaven.

From the 1930s onwards Bawdens prime concern became hiswatercolour painting, even holding a successful solo show at theZwemmer Gallery in 1933, but it wasnt until World War II that histechnique really improved. The challenge of working as a war artistdid Bawdens painting the world of good. As well as the sustainedfocus on watercolours he needed to develop and mature with that

medium, it kept him away from the demands of commercial work,and gave him a broad range of subject matter and technical
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Audley EndPark II, 1974,PrivateCollection

challenges that he thrived on. Hisprogress is quickly stunning, especiallyin his portraiture. He uses a limitedcolour range in his study of An Iraqi

Jew(1943) to powerful effect. Themodelling of the face with subtle layersof wash is solid, realistic and far beyondthe young student who avoided lifeclasses nearly 20 years earlier. His studyofSheik Hammuda al-Muzaiil has all

the richness and tonal range that a picture like Newhaven lacked.You can almost sense the heat outside and he never succumbs toshattering the illusion with the decorative flourishes that came soeasily to him. His lines create texture. While the Sheiks face issculptural and solid, the childs face has a curious expression that ispure Bawden. He hadnt completey shaken off the Nash influence,

and when he came across this scene of war damaged trees inGallabat: Guns Firing on Metemma 1940 his mind must havebeen taken straight back to one of the most powerful images of theFirst World War,

All throughout his career thewatercolours were thebackbone of his output,regularly taking painting tripsto Ireland or elsewhere. Inthese landscapes he saw

patterns everywhere anddeveloped a style that blendedhis new abilities with depth tohis eye for decoration inpictures such as Carsaig,1950. In 1957 he inductedinto the Royal Academy andprovides them with a moodypicture ofLindsell Church ashis diploma piece.

His blending of decoration andeffects of light and space armost notable in his pictures ofwoods such as Audley EndPark III, 1974, each leaf iscarefully outlined in colour butin clever way tha doesntflatten out the overall composition.

In the later years his watercolours depict the things around him: his

house, his cats, his garden. He takes liberties with appearances: Igenerally paint in front of the motifeven if it is not as I see it I

SheikHammuda al-Muzaiil,c.1943,collectionunknown
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dont wish perspective to be my master tipping up floors, catbaskets etc at will to satisfy the composition. the abstract designunderpins every image.

On seeing his exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in 1983,Bawden said:

It is interesting to me as a reminder of places that I wasthrilled to visit such is ones romantic nature - and now as anold wodger interesting because I can trace a development inthe work from stiff simple drawings to late ones that arerather more dashing, more accomplished, the medium usedmore flexibly and fearlessly

When asked in 1982 if he had gradually stopped being a designerand become an artist, he replied

But theres no difference between one and other. All my lifeIve been intermittently been doing watercolour drawings, andIve been interested in line engravings, lithographs andlinocuts. I turned my interest to any direction.

Art and design are very much two sides of the same thing, but atthe same time a piece of design has a particular purpose: messageto get across or adds a memorable or enjoyable element to aproduct or message. Bawdens art is not merely design work with noproduct or commercial message. At his best he makes the eye dart

between witty details, abstract decorative patterns and oftenstartling effects of colour layering. Bawdens design work taughthim many technical things, but he applied them as an artist.

All images copyright of the Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery,unless stated. Text: Kristian Purcell, 2009.

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Lecture Notes Edward Bawden Art vs Design Kristian Purcell