The acclaimed biography detailing the lives of the British inter-war artists and designers centred on Ravilious - an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy and tragedy. In recent years Eric Ravilious has become recognized as one of the most important British artists of the 20th century, whose watercolours and wood engravings capture an essential sense of place and the spirit of mid-century England. What is less appreciated is that he did not work in isolation, but within a much wider network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Paul Nash's teaching at the Royal College of Art - Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Tirzah Garwood, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus and Helen Binyon among them. The Ravilious group bridged the gap between fine art and design, and the gentle, locally rooted but spritely character of their work came to be seen as the epitome of contemporary British values. Eighty years after Ravilious's untimely death, Andy Friend tells the story of this group of artists from their student days through to the Second World War. Ravilious & Co. explores how they influenced each other and how a shared experience animated their work, revealing the significance in this pattern of friendship of women artists, whose place within the history of British art has often been neglected. Generously illustrated and drawing on extensive research, and a wealth of newly discovered material, Ravilious & Co. is an enthralling narrative of creative achievement, joy and tragedy.

A dynamic tale of art and friendship, set between the World Wars, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world Eric Ravilious is one of the best-known twentieth-century English artists. For many, his watercolors capture the spirit of midcentury England. But while he had a style of his own, he did not work in isolation; he worked within a network of artists that included fellow students at the Royal College of Art such as Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman, Enid Marx, Percy Horton, Peggy Angus, and Helen Binyon. The story of this beloved artist is also a biography of the group of fellow creators with whom he associated—men and women who inspired, challenged, and influenced one another—from their student days up through the Second World War. Drawing on extensive research, Andy Friend considers the predecessors in the English watercolor and wood-engraving tradition that influenced the group’s art and demonstrates the significance of women artists, whose place within this interwar-era network has often been neglected. Published to coincide with the seventy-fifth anniversary of Ravilious’s death, Ravilious & Co. accompanies an exhibition of the same name, touring throughout England in 2017.

Global awareness of climate change is increasing, and the scientific evidence is incontrovertible: an environmental crisis is upon us. Art and Climate Change presents an overview of ecologically conscious contemporary art that addresses the climate emergency, as artists across the world call for an active, collective engagement with the planet, and illuminate some of the structures that threaten humanitys survival. Across five chapters, curators Maja and Reuben Fowkes examine artworks that respond to the Anthropocene and its detrimental impact on our world, from scenes of nature decimated by ongoing extinction events and landscapes turned to waste by extraction, to art from marginalized communities most affected by the injustice of climate change. What guides the artists gathered together here is an ardent concern for the living, breathing subject of the Earth and all fellow terrestrials caught up in this fast-moving climate drama.

"This book tells the story of Great Bardfield and its artists, and their famous 'open house' exhibitions, showing how the village and neighbouring landscape nurtured a distinctive style of art, design and illustration from the 1930s to the 1970s and beyond."--Jacket.

More popular than ever, the work of Eric Ravilious (1903-42) is rooted in the landscape of mid-20th-century England. This new survey of his work by Alan Powers, the established authority on Ravilious, is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of his art in all media - watercolour, illustration, printmaking, graphic design, textiles and ceramics - and positions Ravilious firmly as a major figure in the history of early 20th-century British art. In an accessible and engaging text, copiously illustrated with reproductions of work drawn from a range of sources, Alan Powers discusses the reception of Ravilious's work since his death in 1942 and the part it has played in creating an English style of the time, positioned between tradition and Modernism, and borrowing from naive and popular art of the past.

This book reveals the wonderful world of painter and illustrator Edward Bawden. Some pages are beautiful, some instructive and some baffling, but together they give us an insight into the mind of one of the 20 century's most reclusive and English of artists.

A facsimile edition of the classic High Street, which pairs the timeless illustrations of Eric Ravilious with a fascinating text by architectural historian J. M. Richards. First published in 1938, this charming book introduces the British high street. Shops include the family butcher, the cheesemonger, the baker and confectioner and the oyster bar, as well as specialized establishments such as the plumassier, the clerical outfitter and the submarine engineer. Only 2,000 copies of the original book were printed before the lithographic plates were destroyed in the London Blitz. As a result, it has become one of the most collectible of all artists' books from this period. This beautiful facsimile edition features all 24 of Ravilious's colour illustrations, and includes an essay by Gill Saunders, Senior Curator of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, that sets the book in its historical context.

"Few people who met Peggy Angus ever forgot her. Passionate, outspoken and irreverent, she began her career as a painter and muralist before finding her vision as a designer of tile murals and wallpaper. As a teacher she inspired generations of students, of all ages and abilities, instilling in them her belief that art is integral to human life." -- back cover.

A lively history of the Surrealists, both known and unknown, by one of the last surviving members of the movement—artist and bestselling author Desmond Morris. Surrealism did not begin as an art movement but as a philosophical strategy, a way of life, and a rebellion against the establishment that gave rise to the World War I. In The Lives of the Surrealists, surrealist artist and celebrated writer Desmond Morris concentrates on the artists as people—as remarkable individuals. What were their personalities, their predilections, their character strengths and flaws? Unlike the impressionists or the cubists, the surrealists did not obey a fixed visual code, but rather the rules of surrealist philosophy: work from the unconscious, letting your darkest, most irrational thoughts well up and shape your art. An artist himself, and contemporary of the later surrealists, Morris illuminates the considerable variation in each artist’s approach to this technique. While some were out-and-out surrealists in all they did, others lived more orthodox lives and only became surrealists at the easel or in the studio. Focusing on the thirty-two artists most closely associated with the surrealist movement, Morris lends context to their life histories with narratives of their idiosyncrasies and their often complex love lives, alongside photos of the artists and their work.