Richard John Spare (born 1951) is a British artist known primarily for his

drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically ident ...

etchings Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

oil paintings Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

. He is based in London.

Background

Spare attended

Maidstone College of Art The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Col ...

(1971–74) (now the

University for the Creative Arts The University for the Creative Arts is a specialist art and design university in the south of England. It was formed in 2005 as University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester when the Kent Inst ...

) where he studied painting under

Fred Cuming Frederick George Rees Cuming (February 16, 1930 – 12 June, 2022), normally known as Fred Cuming, was a contemporary British landscape painter, who worked in a traditional manner. Life and art Cuming was born in London of English, Scottish ...

. On leaving art college, Spare honed his technical skills as a

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 ...

at Thomas Ross & Son of Putney (1974–77), where he was involved in printing

George Stubbs George Stubbs (25 August 1724 – 10 July 1806) was an English painter, best known for his paintings of horses. Self-trained, Stubbs learnt his skills independently from other great artists of the 18th century such as Reynolds or Gainsborough ...

prints, which were sold through the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, and the renovation of fine

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...

plates, which were exhibited at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...

Turner Bi-centenary Exhibition. Spare also printed original plates from masters including Hogarth,

Cruikshank Cruikshank is a surname of Scottish origin, and is a spelling variation of Cruickshank. Notable people with the surname include: * Brad Cruikshank (born 1979), Canadian ice hockey winger *Chester Cruikshank (1913–1970), American athlete * Dan C ...

Rowlandson Rowlandson is an English surname meaning son of Rowland or Roland. Bearers of the name include: *Alfred Cecil Rowlandson (1865–1922), Australian publisher * James Rowlandson (1577–1639), English Canon of Windsor *Mary Rowlandson (c. 1637–1 ...

Gillray James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British caricatur ...

Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

and

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...

s by

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

. A

Master Printmaker Master printmakers or master printers are specialized technicians who hand-print editions of an artist's or printmaker's print-based artwork. Master printmakers often own and/or operate their own printmaking studio or print shop. Business activities ...

, Spare has editioned work for many contemporary artists, including

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

Robert Ryman Robert Ryman (May 30, 1930February 8, 2019) was an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. He was best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. He lived and worked in New York C ...

Francesco Clemente Francesco Clemente (born 23 March 1952) is an Italian contemporary artist. He has lived at various times in Italy, India and New York City. Some of his work is influenced by the traditional art and culture of India. He has worked in various ar ...

Donald Sultan Donald K. Sultan (born 1951) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, particularly well-known for large-scale still life paintings and the use of industrial materials such as tar, enamel, spackle and vinyl tiles. He has been exhibiting ...

Jim Dine Jim Dine (born June 16, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American artist whose œuvre extends over sixty years. Dine’s work includes painting, drawing, printmaking (in many forms including lithographs, etchings, gravure, intaglio, woodcuts, l ...

and

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

. In 1977 he worked with David Hockney as his assistant, setting up an etching studio for him and printing five editions from Hockney'
'The Blue Guitar' folio
Being able to watch Hockney at work on his sets for th
Glyndebourne 'Magic Flute'
developed Spare's technical interests and appreciation of simple form. In 1979 Spare participated in the printing of

William Daniell William Daniell (1769–1837) was an English Landscape art, landscape and Marine art, marine painter, and printmaker, notable for his work in aquatint. He travelled extensively in India in the company of his uncle Thomas Daniell, with whom he ...

's ''A Voyage Round Great Britain'', topographical views of Great Britain, for the Tate Gallery. A posthumous edition of

Ceri Richards Ceri Giraldus Richards (6 June 1903 – 9 November 1971) was a Welsh painter, print-maker and maker of reliefs. Biography Richards was born in 1903 in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Ri ...

' images followed 1979–81; sold in conjunction with the exhibition of his work at the Tate Gallery in 1981. In the early eighties, Spare was involved in printing the '

Banks' Florilegium ''Banks' Florilegium'' is a collection of copperplate engravings of plants collected by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander while they accompanied Captain James Cook on his first voyage around the world between 1768 and 1771. They collected pla ...

' (Egerton-Williams Studio), the largest restorative printmaking project of the twentieth century. The plates for the 743 engravings of plants, from watercolours by

Sydney Parkinson Sydney Parkinson (c. 1745 – 26 January 1771) was a Scottish botanical illustrator and natural history artist. He was the first European artist to visit Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti. Parkinson was the first Quaker to visit New Zealand. ...

were made during the

first voyage of James Cook The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS ''Endeavour'', from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The ...

to Australia. Having been stored in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

for 200 years, wrapped in a paper containing acid, they had become corroded. Meticulous restoration and demanding

à la poupée ''À la poupée'' is a largely historic intaglio (printmaking), intaglio printmaking technique for making colour prints by applying different ink colours to a single printing plate using ball-shaped wads of cloth, one for each colour. The paper ...

printing ended with the Museum's Botanical Editor checking them for botanical correctness before they could be published. In 1988 Spare worked in New York with

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

, proofing and editioning complex

carborundum prints Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum (), is a hard chemical compound containing silicon and carbon. A semiconductor, it occurs in nature as the extremely rare mineral moissanite, but has been mass-produced as a powder and crystal sin ...

. In 1989 the entirety of Keith Harring and

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

' projec
'The Valley'
was printed by Spare in London. Published in 1990.

Independent work

Since the late 1980s Spare has concentrated solely on his own work, which derives from nature and travel. To date he has published more than 400 images. His characteristic hand printed and watercoloured original drypoints are admired for their pared down, and unique, view of the world – 'the joy of being'. Colour is a crucial element to Spare's work, each being selected to 'vibrate with the velvet black of the drypoint line'. Spare's Wellington Studio garden in Charlton was designed as a rich source of inspiration. Focusing on wildlife it is a 'small haven' for the subjects of many of his works. Wellington studio is a 'homage' to the art of printmaking, with five restored antique etching presses, housed in a converted Victorian coach house.

Selected exhibitions

A frequent exhibitor at the

Royal Academy Summer Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sc ...

, Spare has exhibited 43 individual works there from 29 years as of the 2022 Academy Summer Show; his work was first accepted in 1973. Spare has twice been an invited exhibitor a
The Discerning Eye
exhibition at the

Mall Galleries Mall commonly refers to a: * Shopping mall * Strip mall * Pedestrian street * Esplanade Mall or MALL may also refer to: Places Shopping complexes * The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria * The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India * M ...

. Spare also regularly exhibits his work internationally: One-man international shows include a series of annual exhibitions in cities throughout Japan, including Tokyo, Fukuoka, Osaka, Yokohama, Hiroshima, Matsuyama, Sendai, Sapporo, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, Kagoshima, Kawagoe, and Nara, which spanned 11 years. More recently, he has had one-man shows in Ballarat and Daylesford, Victoria, Australia. He was Guest International Artist at the Toorak Village Art Affair, Melbourne 2012. One-man shows in the UK includ
The Craft Centre & Design Gallery
Leeds City Art Gallery,

Trevelyan College , motto_English = Truth more readily than falsehood , scarf = , named_for = George Macaulay Trevelyan , namesake = George Macaulay Trevelyan , established = 1966 , principal = Adekunle Adeyeye , vice_principal = I ...

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

Cambridge Gallery
Notable mixed shows include 'The Art on paper Fair' at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers open exhibitions, 'The Originals',

Society of Wildlife Artists The Society of Wildlife Artists is a British organisation for artists who paint or draw wildlife. It was founded in 1964. Its founder President was Sir Peter Scott, the current President of the society is British artist Harriet Mead. The society ...

and the

Royal Society of British Artists The Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy. History The RBA commenced with twenty-seven members, and took until 1876 to reach fif ...

Open exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, the Folkestone Metropole Galleries and the

Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...

Open Exhibitions.

Collections

Richard Spare's work appears in numerous public and private collections worldwide, including: *

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London *

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, London *

Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a gallery, part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group, whose collection of 20th-century British Art was designated by the British government in 1997 as a collection "of national importance" ...

Berlin Central and Regional Library The Berlin Central and Regional Library (german: Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin) or ZLB is the official library of the City and State of Berlin, Germany. It was established as a Foundation by two State laws, initially in 1995 and amended in ...

Federation University Australia Federation University Australia (Fed Uni) is a public, multi-sector university based in Ballarat in Victoria, Australia. The university also has campuses in Ararat, Horsham, Stawell, Churchill, Berwick, and Brisbane, as well as online techni ...

, Victoria *

Chelmsford Museum The Chelmsford Museum is based in Oaklands House, an historic property off Moulsham Street in Chelmsford, Essex. It is a Grade II Listed building. Oaklands House The house was designed by Charles Pertwee for Frederick Wells, a director of the ...

Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery Maidstone Museum is a local authority-run museum located in Maidstone, Kent, England, featuring internationally important collections including fine art, natural history, and human history. The museum is one of three operated by Maidstone Boro ...

Aston University Aston University (abbreviated as ''Aston''. for post-nominals) is a public research university situated in the city centre of Birmingham, England. Aston began as the Birmingham Municipal Technical School in 1895, evolving into the UK's first c ...

, Birmingham *

Publications

*Cover illustration ('Snowdrop') for poetry publication: ''Iron String'', A. Lighthart, Airlie Press, Oregon, USA. 1 October 2013. *'Rowing Boat I' reproduced to exemplify a drypoint in ''Etching – a guide to traditional techniques'', A. Smith, The Crowood Press, 2004. *''Galerie d'Amour'', J. Powls, Poetry@MMD, 1998. Illustrated by Richard Spare and Kay Spare. *''Richard Spare – Printmaker'', Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art & Craft, The Beatrice Royal Art Gallery, Tramman Trust, 2000.

References

*In a Chiaroscuro, from: The Blue Guitar (Scottish Arts Council 204; Tokyo 186) *Butlin, M., Gage, J., Joll, E. and Wilton, A., Turner 1775–1851: Bicentenary Exhibition Catalogue (London: Tate, 1974)
The Endeavour Botanical Illustrations
*Judith A. Diment, Christopher J. Humphries, Linda Newington & Elaine Shaughnessy. Catalogue of the natural history drawings commissioned by Joseph Banks on the Endeavour voyage 1768–1771 held in the British Museum (Natural History), Part I: Botany: Australia (Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series Volume 11), London, 1984. *Judith A. Diment, Christopher J. Humphries, Linda Newington & Elaine Shaughnessy. Catalogue of the natural history drawings commissioned by Joseph Banks on the Endeavour voyage 1768–1771 held in the British Museum (Natural History), Part 2: Botany: Brazil, Java, Madeira, New Zealand, Society Islands and Tierra del Fuego (Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series Volume 12), London, 1987. *Ceri Richards (exh. cat., London, Tate, 1981) *The Valley, Keith Haring and William Burroughs, George Mulder Fine Arts, New York City

External links

*
Richard Spare's artwork
on

WikiArt WikiArt (formerly known as WikiPaintings) is an online, user-editable visual art encyclopedia, active since 2004. Current Development In January 2020, the site shows the following numbers: * 3293 artists (attributed to 171 art movements, 267 ...

Richard Spare's catalogue
at the

Bridgeman Art Library The Bridgeman Art Library, based in London, Paris, New York and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Founded in 1972 by Harriet Bridgeman, the Bridgeman Art Library cooperates with many a ...

Richard Spare's biography
on

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togethe ...

Richard Spare's biography at the Royal Academy of Arts

Richard Spare represented in the Berlin Central and Regional Library (ZLB)

Richard Spare represented in the Federation University Australia Art Collection

Richard Spare's biography on Prints and printmaking Australia Asia Pacific

David Hockney's ''The old guitarist'', editioned by Richard Spare, National Gallery Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spare, Richard Living people 1951 births Alumni of the University for the Creative Arts English contemporary artists English printmakers 20th-century British printmakers 21st-century British printmakers English engravers English etchers 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters English male painters Painters from London Artists from London People from Chelmsford 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists 20th-century engravers