Whence & Whither?
Artist and role
Power, Cyril Edward (English, b.1872, d.1951)
Date
Circa 1930
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About this work
Cyril Power was a student of Claude Flight, an influential teacher at the Grosvenor School of Art whose book, Lino-cuts: a hand-book of linoleum-cut colour printing, popularised this medium in England between the two world wars. Power’s Whence & Whither? is one of a number of lino-cut studies the artist made of the London Underground. Preparatory sketches at the Tottenham Court Road tube station include one entitled ‘THE ROBOTTOMLESS PIT, HOMO MECHANIENS’. The dominance of machinery and the automaton-like state of modern lives were preoccupations of Power, Flight and others in the lino-cut movement, deriving in part from their shared admiration of the Italian Futurists.
Power was an extremely meticulous craftsman, making precise printing notes for each of his works. Whence & Whither? is printed from four blocks, in Chinese orange, viridian, permanent blue and dark blue printing ink. The instructions detail how much pressure should be applied to parts of the blocks during printing to achieve the desired tonal range within each colour. The printing instructions for Whence & Whither? were published in fellow lino-cut artist Sybil Andrews’ Print Book 1 1929–1933, which gives the original title of the work as ‘The Cascade’.
Power was an extremely meticulous craftsman, making precise printing notes for each of his works. Whence & Whither? is printed from four blocks, in Chinese orange, viridian, permanent blue and dark blue printing ink. The instructions detail how much pressure should be applied to parts of the blocks during printing to achieve the desired tonal range within each colour. The printing instructions for Whence & Whither? were published in fellow lino-cut artist Sybil Andrews’ Print Book 1 1929–1933, which gives the original title of the work as ‘The Cascade’.
Measurements
320 x 250 mm (paper size)
Artist
Credit
Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Given 1953 by Mr Rex Nan Kivell of the Redfern Gallery, London.
Accession number
68-1953
