This exhibition considers how artists have used a variety of printmaking techniques to exploit the potential of the printed line, from the thick velvety line of drypoint and the heavy cross-hatching of etching to delicate wood engraving and boldly coloured screenprints and lithographs. Spanning the 20th century and up to the present day, the exhibition will include Walter Sickert's masterly cross-hatched etching The Old Middlesex (c.1910), Ben Nicholson's rich drypoint Halse Town 1949 (1949), Eduardo Chillida's bold etchings and David Hockney's pared down linear etchings in Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C. P. Cavafy (1966-67). The use of colour will be explored in screenprints by Bridget Riley and Kenneth Martin, as well as Simon Patterson's witty lithograph reworking of the lines of the London tube map.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES & VENUES
6 April – 2 June 2019, Torre Abbey Museum, Torquay
6 July - 8 September, Dick Institute, Kilmarnock
21 September – 10 November, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum
16 Nov 2019 – 5 Jan 2020, Aberystwyth Arts Centre
11 January – 1 March, Burton Art Gallery, Bideford
7 March – 26 April, The Beaney, Canterbury
25 July – 5 September, Kirkby Gallery, Knowsley
19 September – 15 November, City Museum & Art Gallery, Worcester