A2 Manchester Trip 2017

To finish off a rather hectic and busy term, staff and A2 students had a gorgeous day out in Manchester collecting research and work for their upcoming exam. Thank you to all staff and students for such a lovely day, if only we could do this every week!

We left TRC and arrived at The Whitworth bang on 10 o clock. Currently being exhibited at The Whitworth are artists such as Idris Khan, Andy Warhol, Deanna Petherbridge, Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael and Anya Gallaccio. As well as a wide variety collection of portraits, new sculpture and revolutionary textiles. Students were allowed to take photographs in the galleries, and spent the day researching the exhibiting artists and building a collection of drawings and annotation for their sketchbooks.

Then we had lunch on the promenade, where the students shared their work so far.

After lunch we boarded back on the coach and made our way to the Manchester City Gallery. The City Gallery is best known for its permanent collection of 19th century artists including the Pre-Raphaelites, and is currently exhibiting a collection of photography called 'Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers'.

And then it was time to head home. Thank you again for such a lovely trip, you're a credit to the college! I hope you all found it useful and had a good time.

Andy Warhol - Screen Prints

Currently exhibiting at The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester is a collection of Andy Warhol works from the 1970's and 80's. These include his famous works such as 'Self Portrait'  the 'Electric Chair' series and 'Gun'. Following on from the A2 graphics screen printing workshop, this exhibition was a great experience to see screen printing on such a huge scale and to see the different techniques used to create such bold, vibrant and powerful pieces.

Warhol uses halftones on his photographic prints - halftone is a printing technique similar to pointillism in drawing. To monochromatically produce a gradient, small dots must be used in different densities to create the optical illusion of a shaded area, this was widely used in comics and newsprint in the 1960's when Warhol began his works. The halftone pattern is exaggerated in fellow Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein's paintings.

This technique can be recreated now using a halftone filter in Photoshop to help create a gradient using just one colour ink.

 'Self Portrait' 1986

'Electric Chair' Series 1971

 'Gun' 1981

Not all Warhol's screen prints used the halftone, his 'Dollar Sign' and 'Map of Eastern U.S.S.R. Missile Bases' for example use simple block stencils.

'Map of Eastern U.S.S.R. Missile Bases' 1985-86

'Dollar Sign' 1982

Pablo Picasso - Lino Prints

Currently exhibiting at The Cooper Gallery in Barnsley until 29th April 2017 are the Picasso Linocuts, including portraits of his wife Jaqueline Reading and his famous 'Still Life Under the Lamp'. These large prints from the 50's and 60's are a testament to Picasso's versatility and experimentation for using different techniques. He is said to have been the inventor of the reduction cut process, as lino prints were generally made up of layers from several different blocks for different colours. This was a revolutionary technique, as it makes registration much simpler but is a riskier way of printing as it can be difficult to predict the impact of each layer. Reduction printing has now become a very common form of linocutting.

Picasso made progressive proof prints of each cut, showing the separation between the colours and allowing him to identify if the layer needed reducing further before printing on top of the other layers.

The completed linocut - 'Still Life Under the Lamp' 1962

Another inventive technique Picasso brought to his work was scratching the block with a stiff metal comb to create a sketchy, etched appearance, similar to that of a lithograph or drypoint. He used this in the portraits of Jaqueline Reading. Picasso then combined this with a classic block lino print to create a superimposed piece.