24 May 2025 - 12 April 2026
Edward Bawden Gallery – Free Entry
“In 1924 a friend told me about cutting and printing from lino at a time when such prints were generally unknown… I bought a piece of lino, the common sort universally used for covering floors, and with a tube of artist’s oil paint, a brush and roll of white wallpaper, I went home to experiment”.
Edward Bawden
Edward Bawden made prints in several different mediums, but it is his linocuts that he is best known for. From youthful experiments on his bedsit floor to his monumental linocuts of the 1960s, Bawden made the ‘humble’ medium his own, earning the title of Master of the Linocut.
In this exhibition, we explore his skill and his process through a selection of the prints from the archive that he left to us and newly acquired lino blocks gifted by the family that have never been seen in public before.
'Covent Garden', 1967 © The Estate of Edward Bawden
Bawden began experimenting with lino whilst still a student at The Royal College of Art. It was a relatively new medium for artists and had to be purchased from hardware stores rather than art suppliers. It was invented in Britain in the 1860s as a floor covering but artists began to see the benefits of it as a printmaking surface in the beginning of the twentieth century. The prints it produces are like woodcuts but unlike wood, lino is softer and has no grain so it can be cut easily and in any direction.
Bawden, saw it as a “designer’s medium… this humble material, so soft and characterless, can really offer features that are unique”.
Detail from 'Brighton Pier', 1977 © The Estate of Edward Bawden
Edward Bawden Archive Session
10 June, 10-11.30am
£13.25, concessions £10.65 - Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a delve through the Edward Bawden Archive. This is an oppurtunity to see well known works as well as pieces that have never been on display before
Exhibition Tour
27 June, 12-12.30pm
£3.60 per person, concessions £3.05 – Booking Essential
Join the Keeper of Fine and Decorative Art for a lunchtime tour of some of the highlights of the exhibition.