ANDREWS, Sybil (1898-1992)
Archive of 74 Drawings and 1 Painting
c.1920s-1980s. 74 pen-and-ink, graphite, and pastel drawings, within archival mats. 1 oil painting on canvas. 1 graphite drawing on canvas. Various sizes. Housed in 6 black cloth boxes. With extensive related research conducted by Sibyl Andrews expert Dr. Hana Leaper.
A remarkable collection of preparatory sketches by the English-Canadian artist Sibyl Andrews, including 74 sketches from the 1920s to the 1980s, most signed, including 1 oil painting and 1 graphite on canvas. Many of these developmental drawings relate directly to Andrews's most sought after prints.
This extraordinary collection of Andrews's dynamic drawings spans the length of her long career with 74 preparatory works that are, in part, integrally connected to her famed linocuts including The Winch (1929) and The Tube Station (1932). With preliminary sketches from both her time in the UK and Canada, as well as those attached to her iconic London Underground commercial posters designed with the architect Cyril Power, this ready-made research archive would be the perfect complement to any institutional collection of her famous linocuts. As the art historian Dr. Hana Leaper, author of Andrews's catalog raisonné, wrote of the present collection, "the developmental drawings in this body of work provide important new evidence of Andrews's working processes." Especially of interest is how these sketches evince Andrews's use of architectural drawing tools and techniques. Evidence of her methodology is present in compass and pin holes, and tracing papers used to transfer drawings to printing blocks. Associated with Vorticism and the Grosvenor School of Art, Andrews was an accomplished printmaker and painter whose modernist linocuts expressed the energy and speed of the machine age. Encouraged by her teacher Claude Flight, Andrews developed an electric style of overlaid forms that reflected the influence of Cubism and Futurism. Her work depicted race cars, motorcycles, machinery, subway commuters, and other images of modern industrial society. Working jointly under the pseudonym Andrew Power, Andrews and her partner Cyril Power received commissions to produce promotional posters for Transport for London, advertising events such as the 1933 Wimbledon tennis tournament. Andrews moved to Canada in 1947 and lived the rest of her life there, making work that captured Canadian nature and culture. We wish to extend thanks to the art historian Dr. Hana Leaper, John Moores Painting Prize Senior Lecturer and Development Manager at the Liverpool School of Art and Design, who worked with us to extensively catalog and contextualize the present Sybil Andrews collection. Dr. Leaper wrote the catalogue raisonné on Andrews's work, has curated exhibitions of her artwork, and is the foremost scholar writing on her today. An itemized catalog of the full Andrews archive with an extensive essay by Dr. Leaper is available upon request.
Hana Leaper, Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue, Lund Humphries, 2015; Sybil Andrews and the Grosvenor School Linocuts, Osborne Samuel Limited, 2015.
Item #26909
Price: $195,000.00