John Reginald Brunsdon
ARCA was a British artist,
printmaker
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...
and
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
. He was born in
Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
15 August 1933 and died in
Ipswich 13 April 2014.
Work
Brunsdon is considered one of the finest British printmakers and is represented in many major public collections such as the Tate Gallery, the Scottish Museum of Modern Art, the V&A, the Arts Council, MOMA in New York and the British Council.
Brunsdon studied at the
Cheltenham College of Art from 1949 to 1953. After
national service he attended the
Royal College of Art from 1955 to 1958 under the tutelage of
Julian Trevelyan and others including
Edwin La Dell,
Edward Ardizzone
Edward Jeffrey Irving Ardizzone, (16 October 1900 – 8 November 1979), who sometimes signed his work "DIZ", was an English painter, print-maker and war artist, and the author and illustrator of books, many of them for children. For ''Tim All ...
and
Edward Bawden.
Inspired initially by the great American abstract expressionists (and artists such as
Yves Klein) Brunsdons' early work in monochrome as well as colour assured his reputation. Showing by invite at the New Editions Exhibition (group show) at the Zwemmer Gallery 1961. By the 1970s Brunsdons' work became more figurative and led by landscape
and turned further again to a more representational style in his later life.
From 1958 to 1963 he was resident at
Digswell House when he began teaching portrait painting part-time at
St. Albans School of Art. He then moved to
Woburn, Bedfordshire.
In 1969 he established the
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...
department at St Albans College of Art, where he taught full-time for 16 years as Head of Printmaking while exhibiting extensively in Britain and abroad, until moving to Stradbroke in
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
in 1977.
Brunsdon was a full member of The
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and in 1965 a founder member of The
Printmakers Council
The London-based Printmakers Council, founded in 1965, aims to promote the art of printmaking (through providing information, encouraging co-operation and holding exhibitions) and the work of contemporary printmakers. Their office is situated in ...
.
Collections
1967 Curwen Gallery, London
His
etchings are in national and major collections worldwide including:
*
Tate Gallery, Londo
*
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. It was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council (l ...
*
British Councilbr>
*
Government Art Collectionbr>
*
Victoria & Albert Museum
*
Museum of Modern Art, New York
*
National Trust
*
University of Warwickbr>
Selected solo exhibitions
1967 Curwen Gallery, London
1968 Printmakers Workshop, Edinburgh
1973 Oxford Gallery, Oxford
1975 Zella 9 Gallery, London
1976 Swansea Arts Festival, Swansea
1984 John Owen Gallery, Cardiff
1984 Chapman Gallery, Camberra
1989 Heffers gallery, Cambridge
1990 Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon
1996 CCA Galleries, London
1998 Major retrospective at the Bankside Gallery, London
2006 Rostra & Rooksmoor Gallery, Bath
Bibliography
''The Technique of Etching and Engraving'' – Batsford 1964.
Bibliography
''The Technique of Etching and Engraving'' – Batsford 1964.
References
External links
John BrunsdonSuffolk Painters
1933 births
2014 deaths
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
English printmakers
People from Cheltenham
{{UK-printmaker-stub