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 Richard Spare scrim-wiping the copper plate of his drypoint 'Poppy Spray' c.1999 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Richard John Spare 16 April 1951 Chelmsford, Essex, England | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | richardspare | ||||||||||||||||||
Richard John Spare (born 1951) is a British artist and Master Printmaker known primarily for his drypoints, etchings and oil paintings. [1] [2] He is based in London.
Spare attended Maidstone College of Art (1971–74) (now the University for the Creative Arts) where he studied painting under Fred Cuming. On leaving art college, Spare honed his technical skills as a printmaker at Thomas Ross & Son [3] of Putney (1974–77), where he was involved in printing George Stubbs prints, which were sold through the Tate Gallery, and the renovation of fine Turner aquatint plates, which were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts Turner Bi-centenary Exhibition. Spare also printed original plates from masters including Hogarth, Cruikshank, Rowlandson, Gillray, Landseer and mezzotints by Martin.
A Master Printmaker, Spare has editioned work for many contemporary artists, including David Hockney, Robert Ryman, Francesco Clemente, Donald Sultan, Jim Dine and Keith Haring. In 1977 he worked with David Hockney as his assistant, setting up an etching studio for him and printing five editions from Hockney's The Blue Guitar suite. [4] [5] Being able to watch Hockney at work on his sets for the Glyndebourne Magic Flute developed Spare's technical interests and appreciation of simple form.
In 1979 Spare participated in the printing of William Daniell's A Voyage Round Great Britain, topographical views of Great Britain, for the Tate Gallery. A posthumous edition of Ceri Richards' images followed 1979–81; sold in conjunction with the exhibition of his work at the Tate Gallery in 1981.
In the early eighties, Spare was involved in printing the Banks' Florilegium in colour (Egerton-Williams Studio), the largest restorative printmaking project of the twentieth century. The plates for the 743 engravings of plants, from watercolours by Sydney Parkinson were made during the first voyage of James Cook to Australia. Having been stored in the British Museum for 200 years, wrapped in a paper containing acid, they had become corroded. Meticulous restoration and demanding à la poupée printing ended with the Museum's Botanical Editor checking them for botanical correctness before they could be published.
In 1988 Spare worked in New York with Jasper Johns, proofing and editioning complex carborundum prints.
Between 1989 and 1990 Spare collaborated with Keith Harring and William S. Burroughs, printing the entirety of 'The Valley' suite at his Wellington Studios in London. Published in 1990. Other collaborations with Haring included the series Untitled Series (with Sean Kalish) along with independent etchings.
Since the late 1980s Spare has concentrated solely on his own work, which derives from nature and travel, publishing more than 400 images.
Richard Spare's characteristic hand printed and watercoloured original drypoints are admired for their pared down, and unique, view of the world – 'the joy of being'. [6] Colour is a crucial element to Spare's work, each being selected to 'vibrate with the velvet black of the drypoint line'. Spare's Wellington Studio garden in Charlton was designed as a rich source of inspiration. Focusing on wildlife it is a 'small haven' for the subjects of many of his works. Wellington studio is a 'homage' to the art of printmaking, with five restored antique etching presses, housed in a converted Victorian coach house.
Solo exhibitions in the UK include The Craft Centre and Design Gallery, Leeds Art Gallery, Trevelyan College, University of Durham and Cambridge Gallery.
Spare represented the UK at the Ninth British International Print Biennale in 1986 alongside David Hockney, Richard Hamilton, Eduardo Paolozzi, Howard Hodgkin, Peter Blake, Frank Auerbach, Patrick Caulfield, Joe Tilson, Tess Jaray, and Norman Ackroyd. The 346 exhibitors included Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz, Frank Stella, Jim Dine, R.B. Kitaj and Elaine de Kooning from the United States, Tadanori Yokoo and Tetsuya Noda from Japan and Emilio Vedova from Italy. [38]
Spare has twice been an invited exhibitor at The Discerning Eye ING Art Prize exhibition at the Mall Galleries. [39] [40]
Shortlisted four times for the Hunting Art Prize.
Other notable mixed shows include 'The Art on paper Fair' at the Royal College of Art, The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers open exhibitions, 'The Originals', Society of Wildlife Artists and the Royal Society of British Artists Open exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, the Folkestone Metropole Galleries and the Whitechapel Open Exhibitions.
Richard Spare's work appears in numerous public and private collections worldwide, [41] including:
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The difference is in the use of tools, and that the raised ridge along the furrow is not scraped or filed away as in engraving. Traditionally the plate was copper, but now acetate, zinc, or plexiglas are also commonly used. Like etching, drypoint is easier to master than engraving for an artist trained in drawing because the technique of using the needle is closer to using a pencil than the engraver's burin.
Sir Francis Seymour Haden PPRE, was an English surgeon, better known as an original etcher who championed original printmaking. He was at the heart of the Etching Revival in Britain, and one of the founders of the Society of Painter-Etchers, now the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, as its first president. He was also a collector and scholar of Rembrandt's prints.
David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Allen Jones is a British pop artist best known for his paintings, sculptures, and lithography. He was awarded the Prix des Jeunes Artistes at the 1963 Paris Biennale. He is a Senior Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 2017 he returned to his home town to receive the award Honorary Doctor of Arts from Southampton Solent University
Sir Charles Holroyd RE was an English painter, original printmaker and curator during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras up to and including the First World War. He was Keeper of the Tate from 1897 to 1906, Director of the National Gallery from 1906 to 1916 and Assessor (Vice-President) of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers & Engravers from 1902 to 1917.
Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, Mrs Houston, was a Scottish painter and printmaker. She was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy of Arts.
The etching revival was the re-emergence and invigoration of etching as an original form of printmaking during the period approximately from 1850 to 1930. The main centres were France, Britain and the United States, but other countries, such as the Netherlands, also participated. A strong collector's market developed, with the most sought-after artists achieving very high prices. This came to an abrupt end after the 1929 Wall Street crash wrecked what had become a very strong market among collectors, at a time when the typical style of the movement, still based on 19th-century developments, was becoming outdated.
Sir David Young Cameron was a Scottish painter and, with greater success, etcher, mostly of townscapes and landscapes in both cases. He was a leading figure in the final decades of the Etching Revival.
Abbot Hall Art Gallery is an art gallery in Kendal, England. Abbot Hall was built in 1759 by Colonel George Wilson, the second son of Daniel Wilson of Dallam Tower, a large house and country estate nearby. It was built on the site of the old Abbot's Hall, roughly where the museum is today. Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries this was where the Abbot or his representative would stay when visiting from the mother house of St Mary's Abbey, York. The architect is unknown. During the early twentieth century the Grade I listed building was dilapidated and has been restored as an art gallery.
Charles William Bartlett was an English painter and printmaker who settled in Hawaii.
Sir Christopher Mark Le Brun PPRA is a British artist, known primarily as a painter. President of the Royal Academy of Arts from 2011 to December 2019, Le Brun was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours "for services to the arts".
Warrington Wickham Colescott Jr. was an American artist, he is best known for his satirical etchings. He was a master printmaker and operated Mantegna Press in Hollandale, Wisconsin, with his wife and fellow artist Frances Myers. Colescott died on 10 September 2018, at the age of 97.
Elizabeth Adela Forbes was a Canadian painter who was primarily active in the UK. She often featured children in her paintings and School Is Out is one of her most popular works. She was friends with the artists James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Walter Sickert, both of whom influenced her work. Her etchings in particular are said to show the influence of Whistler.
Anthony Imre Alexander Gross was a British printmaker, painter, war artist and film director of Hungarian-Jewish, Italian, and Anglo-Irish descent.
Leonard Beaumont (1891–1986) was an English printmaker, graphic designer, illustrator and publisher. He was one of the earliest exponents of the new art of linocut printmaking in Britain during the early 1930s. He was one of a small group of progressive and highly regarded printmakers who exhibited at the Redfern and Ward Galleries in central London. Whilst working in relative isolation in Yorkshire, most of his contemporaries were linked in some way to the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, located in Pimlico, London.
Gardner (Cassatt) Held by His Mother is a drypoint print dated circa 1889 by the American painter, printmaker, pastelist, and connoisseur Mary Cassatt. The example illustrated is in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and is a gift of Samuel Putnam Avery.
Geoffrey Heath Wedgwood, ARCA, RE was a British etcher and engraver, best known for his architectural etchings.
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Frances Sally McLaren is a British painter, printmaker and etcher who was born in London in 1936. She lives and works in East Knoyle, Wiltshire.
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