TAG Fine Arts is releasing Tobias Till's new box set of linocut prints at the London Art Fair next week. Here's an introduction to the series from the artist himself: "I had recently completed a print depicting all the London Bridges from the Thames Barrier to Barnes Bridge, showing London in an A-Z format followed on from that. Both ideas take a structured format which set a challenge that inspired me. I enjoyed the play on the conventional London A-Z map book with the task of trying to represent London in pictorial terms with each letter depicting a different place. I started by making numerous lists with some inevitable problem letters and abundance of possibilities for others. I was also restricted to a standard proportion and there were one or two ideas that I needed to change in order to create a composition that worked within that format. I realised that some landmarks such as the London Eye did not need to be singled out as a separate subject since it inevitably appears in the background to many of the other letters. I like the idea that a landmark that is shown from different positions in a number of prints sets up a dialogue between those images and gives an overall spatial impression of the city.
In making my selection I also wanted to give a range of different places. Inevitably there is a relationship between some of the subjects. O for Old Bailey and W for Wormwood Scrubs Prison clearly have a link. I also wanted to show London at a variety of different times of day and weather conditions. This led me to rework the colour of a few of the prints in order to represent a diverse range of atmospheres.
To date all my lino prints have been reduction prints which inhibit much experimentation with colour. This is the first series of prints that I have produced using multiple blocks with each colour being printed from a separate block. The complete series comprises of over 100 hand carved blocks. With the aid of a computer I was able to experiment with different colour and tonal variations before committing to the final printed image."
The London Art Fair | 18 - 22 January 2012
Stand 40 Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 0QH
Wed and Thurs 11am - 9pm | Fri 11am - 7pm | Sat 10am - 7pm | Sun 10am - 5pm
Please contact us at info@tagfinearts.com if you have yet to receive a ticket.
Those of you who visited us at the London Art Fair last week can't have failed to notice Chris Mitton's fantastic new sculpture, 'Fragile Peace.'
