''Eric Slater should not be confused with another Eric Slater who designed ceramics in the 1930s.'' Eric Brindley Slater (1896 – 13 March 1963) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

printmaker.Official website biography
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Biography

Eric Slater was a colour

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

artist who had an international reputation in the 1920s and 1930s.Exhibition showcases famous Seaford artist Eric Slater
'' Sussex Express'', 6 May 2012 The son of a

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary grea ...

, he was born in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. When he was eight, his father died and he moved with his mother to

East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East ...

, first to

Bexhill-on-Sea Bexhill-on-Sea (often shortened to Bexhill) is a seaside town and civil parish situated in the county of East Sussex in South East England. An ancient town and part of the local government district of Rother, Bexhill is home to a number of ar ...

, then to

Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The ...

, and finally, in 1929, to Seaford. He attended the Hastings School of Art. Notable for their beautifully observed skies, many of Slater's prints are inspired by the

South Downs The South Downs are a range of chalk hills that extends for about across the south-eastern coastal counties of England from the Itchen valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, in the Eastbourne Downland Estate, East Sussex, in the eas ...

and the coastline near his home. His printmaking was revered during his relatively short career, and much admired by Campbell Dodgson, then Keeper of Prints and Drawings at 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 ...

. Slater was a member of the Society of Graver Printers in Colour and the Society of Print Makers of California. His work was exhibited in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Austria and South Africa, but he stopped making woodcuts soon after the death of his mother in 1938. By the time Slater died in 1963, he had sunk into obscurity. With no close surviving relatives, a priest organised his burial in Seaford. An exhibition of his landscapes was held at the

Towner Gallery Towner Art Gallery is located in Eastbourne, East Sussex, on the south coast of England. It hosts one of the most significant public art collections in the South of England and draws over 100,000 visitors a year. It was described by ITV News ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the l ...

, East Sussex, in 2012 - the first public display of his work for 70 years. Exhibitions in Seaford and Lewes followed in 2013, that year being the 50th anniversary of Slater's death, and Slater's work continues to be exhibited and publicised. Slater's prints are held by the

and the

Victoria and 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 ...

, and can also be found in national museums in Canada and New Zealand. The Towner exhibition helped revive interest in his work and the output of other British artists who used Japanese techniques to make colour woodcuts - a printing method introduced to the UK by Frank Morley Fletcher (1866-1949) in the 1890s. A book about Slater by James Trollope, called ''Slater's Sussex'', has been published in association with the Towner Gallery. Slater was taught the Japanese woodcut technique by his Sussex neighbour Arthur Rigden Read (1879-1955). The work of both artists was shown at the

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery Hastings Museum & Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery located in, Hastings, East Sussex, England. Established in 1892, it originally resided in the Brassey Institute (now the town's library), but moved to its current location in 1927. i ...

in 2017 in an exhibition called A Sussex Wave from Japan.www,hmag.org.uk

References

External links

Official website"The Hokusai of Sussex" - October 2021 article in ''The New Statesman'' magazineSlater's work
on the BBC's ''

Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people ( ...

''
Meridian Gallery blog pageTelevision news video clip about Eric Slater
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Eric 1896 births 1963 deaths English printmakers People from Hampstead People from Seaford, East Sussex