Swaps: David Hurn on Photography - Part 3 16 March 2018 Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection runs from 30 September 2017 to 15 April 2018. This exhibition celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Here are the final collection of short films from the exhibition: Philip Jones Griffiths "This is a picture by Philip Jones Griffiths. Philip is a Welshman, he’s a Welsh speaking Welshman from North Wales. From an educational point of view I find him another one of the people who was self trained as a photographer. I find it intriguing how most of the people that I really admire in photography, are self trained. To me, it’s one of the most moving pictures I’ve ever seen. It’s usually on my wall, it’s on the stairs and you’re confronted by it if you’re going up to the toilet. Not infrequently, people come down with bleary, teary eyes and I think that’s, in a way, what a picture should do. I think that’s what photography does terribly well. You don’t need to have an explanation. I think the general public know enough about what goes on in the world of wars and thing like that, so it’s not that important to anyone going up there whether it’s Vietnam, or Biafra or whatever. It tells you something about the human condition which we all instinctively know enough about to get an emotional impact from the picture. And I just think it’s a strong a picture as I’ve ever seen by anybody. A truly remarkable person, and greatly, greatly missed." Clémentine Schneidermann "I saw the work of this young lady, I didn’t know her or anything about her, at a small gallery in Abertillery and it reeked of quality. There was what I call authorship. This looked to me, potentially, a cloass photographer. Later she had a little brochure made which again has that same thing. It kind of has a feeling of togetherness about it, you sense that the person understands what they’re photographing. This kind of photography is very in at the moment, a certain look of person and a certain kind of portraiture. All I can say is that she does it much better than a lot of other people around. It’s my personal opinion. And that’s why I asked her if I could swap a couple of prints with her. I think she already is a pretty classy photographer and I suspect in 50 years’ time she will still be shooting pictures." Bruce Davidson "And then the other photographer who I met at that time was Bruce Davidson who was… I did travel around quite a lot with him and particularly when he was in London I introduced him and got him into a lot of ‘slightly undergroundy’ places he might have struggled to get to. This particular picture is an extraordinary picture, from a set of pictures he did on a gang in New York. Incredible set of pictures. Bruce was lovely, we used to go round in one of the first little Mini’s and I remember he used to eat a staggering amount of bananas. For some reason we lived off bananas. He is a wonderful photographer and a wonderful person. He did extraordinary work on the Selma marches and things like that. Great social conscience and decent human being. He had an incredible effect on me and gave me a lot of prints. This was at the time when there weren’t galleries, a print was something that cost you 50p to have made. Somebody said “oh, I’d like that”, which people mainly didn’t, and he’d say “fine”, you know. I think in the collection there are probably about eight or nine Bruce Davidson pictures and I think every one of them is so beautiful. I would have loved to have taken this picture, it’s a great picture. " John Davies "John Davies was living in South Wales, he is an extraordinarily good landscape photographer of a very, very pure documentary nature. They’re very straight pictures of the landscape, there’s obviously no tricks, they’re just very much scene pictures. I basically swapped a mass of pictures, probably over twenty years, in that we swapped Christmas cards. We both made handmade Christmas cards – they’re actual prints that are made, and in my case, every year I make fifty of them and they go out as a limited edition. I’m not quite sure what his edition is, but he does the same. There was no reason to try and get a bigger print because I just think they are so beautiful this size. They are just so delicate and lovely." Banner photograph by Clémentine Schneidermann. More info David Hurn at Magnum Philip Jones Griffiths at Magnum Clémentine Schneidermann Bruce Davidson at Magnum John Davies
Swaps: David Hurn on Photography - Part 2 15 January 2018 Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection runs from 30 September 2017 to 15 April 2018. This exhibition celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Here are some short films from the exhibition: Josef Koudelka "I had this very large flat in London, in Bayswater, so what actually happened was when people used to come to England from abroad they would all end up on my floor, so much so that I had a big front room that actually had four mattresses on the floor. But anyway, basically what happened was Josef Koudelka, who’s Czech, after the Czech uprising was having potential problems in Czechoslovakia, and Elliott Erwitt primarily, who was then the president of Magnum, discovered a way of getting Josef out of Czechoslovakia by giving him some award from Magnum to come and take pictures." "There was this ring at the front doorbell, it was Elliott who I knew was coming with this photographer who I didn’t know very much about who was Josef Koudelka. So Elliott said ‘Look, Josef here, can he use your darkroom and stay with you while he develops his film. So I said, ‘Yes of course, how many rolls do you have?’ My memory is he said 800!" "So he stayed in the flat… who knows, we said 8 years or so, it was an awful long time and in the end we were so close that I used to introduce him as my brother and he did the same. I love him dearly and he’s just the most perfect example, because I’ve never known anybody that works so hard, I’ve never known anyone that’s so involved with photography, that’s so meticulous about what he does." Tish Murtha "Tish was a puzzle; she was a student who came in, she had the shortest interview, so short I remember it, of any person that we ever interviewed coming into Newport. I never used to look at portfolios; I wasn’t that interested in whether people thought they could shoot pictures. I was interested in finding people that had passions about things, they could be a botanist or an architect." "Anyway, Tish came in and I remember asking her what did she want to do and she said something like ‘I want to photograph policemen kicking kids’ or something. That’s all she said, and I said “fine, we’ll teach you how to photograph that”." "I knew I was onto a winner because she talked about her background just in that little sentence with so much passion and so much obvious knowledge etc. etc. She was a wonderful photographer. I mean this picture is extraordinary. Such a loving picture of two people who are living on the streets. It has such intimacy and you can’t take that sort of picture unless you really, really are involved with the people involved." Sergio Larraín "This particular picture by Sergio Larrain is kind of important for me, because it, in a way gave me permission to do certain things. I was in Trafalgar Square photographing the pigeons and there in Trafalgar Square was another photographer photographing the pigeons who turned out to be Sergio Larrain." "We became friends, and Sergio looked at my pictures and he said to me that competing in this world of current affairs was really not me at my best, and that I was at my best doing much more personal kinds of things. That was extraordinary for me because I suddenly realised that here was a photographer who took pictures that I really loved saying to me “it’s ok to go and do what you really love doing”. Now, it happened that by luck, the colour supplements started in the 1960s, and that was great for me because there was always a little slot in those colour supplements for that mundane type of story, which meant that the only person that was left to fill in this slot of the mundane was me! So I had, in many ways, a free hand, and he is a very, very important person in my life." Banner photograph by Tish Murtha. More info David Hurn at Magnum Josef Koudelka at Magnum Sergio Larrain at Magnum Tish Murtha
Swaps: David Hurn on Photography 29 September 2017 Swaps: Photographs from the David Hurn Collection runs from 30 September 2017 to 15 April 2018. This exhibition celebrates the major gift of photographs from David Hurn’s private collection and marks the opening of Amgueddfa Cymru’s first gallery dedicated to photography. Here are some short films from the exhibition: The Collection "The collection really didn’t start until 1958 I suppose. I started taking pictures in 1955, and in 1958 I was shooting pictures in Trafalgar Square, and there was another photographer who came up to me and said a very bizarre thing. He said “I think you might be a pretty good photographer”. Anyway, it turned out to be Sergio Larrain. I was looking at Sergio’s pictures and he gave me a couple of his pictures. And I realised how much I treasured not only the beautiful pictures, but there is something (which is in my opinion indescribable) about the connection between having the print that a photographer himself had okayed. So I started to collect and then I started the idea of actually swapping a print. And so that’s what I started to do, and I had the confidence that I could go to photographers like Dorothea Lang and people like that. I then had the arrogance to meet her and say how much I liked her pictures, and I would love to swap a print. And I suddenly discovered that people like doing it. I think the collection is a very personal collection. I think of the photographers that are in there; it would not be possible to have a better collection." Dorothea Lange White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933. "Dorothea Lange was one of the great photographers in the history of photography, who was very important particularly because of the pre-war pictures in the dustbowl. I knew of Dorothea Lange and I happened to be in Chicago, and I knew that at that time she was living in Chicago, and so I literally went… I was now known a little bit as a photographer, and I just went to see her basically. I hadn’t thought about getting a print, it was before I swapped prints even. I saw her and she was showing me some prints, and I basically said “I love this picture” and she gave me the picture. She did a wonderful book, it was done with her husband and it’s one of the most complete books which is the pointing out of a social problem. It’s a very beautiful book. It really shows you how a book can be laid out, and how the correct captioning and the correct text and the correct pictures can put together a very powerful argument for something, you know. It’s a very important book I think." Henri Cartier-Bresson French painter Henri Matisse at his home, villa 'Le Rêve'. Vence, France, 1944. "Bresson was married to a wonderful photographer called Martine Franck. Martine had photographed on Toraigh Island which is a little island off the Irish coast, and photographed somebody called James Dixon who was a naïve painter there, and I had about three paintings by James Dixon because I’d also been to Toraigh island and photographed. I said ‘Ok, why don’t we swap the painting for a picture by Bresson and a picture by you?’ So I got two pictures for the painting. So, the pictures arrived and I’ve got the two pictures – a wonderful, wonderful picture by Martine Franck. And then this appealed because it’s perhaps one of my favourite painters photographed by one of my favourite photographers. Later, after Henri had died I got an envelope through the post, and it’s from Martine, and it’s another one of the same picture, but it’s got a bend in the corner. I do actually have the note which is even more charming, and the note says ‘discovered this picture. It had obviously been damaged and Henri had realised that it was damaged, therefore had another print made’ because he didn’t make his own prints ever, they were always made by the same people, ‘and so I thought you might like this as well.’ It’s a beautiful portrait. It’s everything to me a portrait should do, you know." Banner photograph by John Davies. More info David Hurn at Magnum Henri Cartier-Bresson at Magnum Sergio Larrain at Magnum Martine Franck at Magnum Dorothea Lange at the History Place
Llareggub: Peter Blake illustrates Under Milk Wood Rhodri Viney, 10 November 2016 'Llareggub: Peter Blake illustrates Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood' was an exhbition that was held at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales between 23 November 2013 - 16th March 2014. The exhibition featured portraits drawn in black and white pencil on tinted paper, watercolors illustrating the dream sequences in the play, ‘narratives and locations’ in a mix of media including collage, and photographs that Blake took himself in Laugharne in the 1970s. Sir Peter Blake discusses his approach, technique and relationship with Under Milk Wood in these films made for the exhibition. Under Milk Wood at Entiharmon Editions Peter Blake on Wikipedia Peter Blake at the Tate Under Milk Wood on Wikipedia Dylan Thomas on Wikipedia 'Dylan' at the National Library of Wales
The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals 2 August 2014 The most ambitious print project of the First World WarThis exhibition presents the complete print series, The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals. These sixty-six prints were produced by the British government in 1917 as artistic propaganda with the aim of encouraging a war-weary public and raising support for the war effort.Eighteen artists contributed to the series, including Augustus John, George Clausen and Frank Brangwyn – some of the most celebrated artists of the time.As a government commission, the artists did not have full artistic freedom. They were given their subjects and each image had to pass censorship regulations.The prints are divided into two sets of portfolios, ‘Ideals’ and ‘Efforts’. The ‘Ideals’ address the question of why Britain was at war and what it aimed to achieve. These images are dramatic and symbolic, such as The Freedom of the Seas and The Triumph of Democracy. The ‘Efforts’ illustrate some of the activities of the war effort, the means by which Britain was to achieve the ‘Ideals’. The Efforts are separated into nine subject headings, each depicting a different activity or theme.Producing and ExhibitingThese prints were commissioned by Wellington House, a government department secretly set up to produce propaganda. The project was managed by the artist Thomas Derrick (1885–1954), and the printing carried out under the direction of the artist and contributor F. Ernest Jackson (1872–1945). The printer was Avenue Press, London.The contributing artists were paid well, each receiving £210 (about £10,000 today) with the possibility of further royalties from sales. The prints were a limited edition of two hundred. The ‘Efforts’ were sold for £2 2s 0d (£100) each and the ‘Ideals’ for £10 10s 0d (£500).As a government commission, the artists did not have full artistic freedom. They were given their subjects and each image had to pass censorship regulations.The series was first exhibited at the Fine Art Society, London in July 1917, followed by regional art galleries around Britain. It was also shown in France and in America, where the majority of the portfolios were sent to be exhibited and sold.Contemporary Reaction to Prints“The very soul of the war is to be read in the set of sixty-six brilliant lithographs.” (The Illustrated London News, 1917)These prints were commissioned as propaganda with the specific aim of raising civilian morale and manipulating public opinion towards the First World War in Britain and abroad. In 1917, after three years of hard fighting and unprecedented loss of life, the government needed a new way to maintain public support for the war. These prints were designed to remind people of the aims and objectives, and emphasise the importance of patriotic duty.It is hard to know whether the prints were successful as propaganda. They were widely published when first exhibited in 1917. Some journalists supported the message, “To see these lithographs is a patriotic as well as an artistic duty” (Burton Daily Mail, Feb 15, 1918). Others were not so positive, “their efforts are in almost every instance sincere; yet the result is, on the whole, meagre and unsatisfying.” (The Daily Telegraph, 20 July 1917). In America, the reaction initially seemed positive, ‘they have been a revelation to American Fifth Avenue art patrons, dealer, critics…They put up British prestige’. However, prints sales there did not meet expectations and a loss was made on the project as a whole.Lithography and the Senefelder Club‘The most brilliant of the younger men are all now making remarkable lithographs…there is a genuine renaissance of the art’ (Joseph Pennell, 1914)Lithography is a printing technique based on the principle that oil and water do not mix. An artist draws an image onto a smooth surface, traditionally a limestone, with a greasy material. Ink is then rolled onto the surface, it is attracted to the drawing, but repelled by the dampened un-drawn areas. Paper is laid down on the stone and run through a press. Different effects can be achieved using different greasy materials to draw. These can imitate a chalk or pencil drawing or even watercolour. Many of these prints were produced using a ‘transfer’ method, where a drawing made on special paper is transferred to the stone, rather than working on it directly. For colour lithographs, the artist begins with the design on a key-stone using one colour. Any further colours require a different stone, inked up and printed one on top of another.Many of the contributing artists were members of the Senefelder club, a small club set up in 1908 to encourage and revive artistic lithography. It was named after the 18th century German inventor of the process. This portfolio was produced at a time of a revival of interest in the artistic opportunities of lithography. Ideals The Freedom of the Seas - Frank Brangwyn The Reign of Justice - Edmund J. Sullivan The Rebirth of the Arts - Charles Shannon The Triumph of Democracy - William Rothenstein Italia Redenta - Charles Ricketts The End of War - Sir William Nicholson The Restoration of Serbia - Gerald Moira United Defence Against Aggression (England and France, 1914) - F. Ernest Jackson The Restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France - Maurice Greiffenhagen Poland a Nation - Edmund Dulac The Reconstruction of Belgium - George Clausen The Dawn - Augustus John “To lose sight of Britain's ultimate ideals of freedom and democratic justice is to reduce the present war to nothing less than a carnival of carnage” (Burton Daily Mail, Feb 15, 1918)Twelve artists each contributed a large colour lithograph to this section. Some of the artists, including Brangwyn and F. Ernest Jackson, were accomplished lithographers, whilst for others, such as Clausen and Grieffenhagen, it was the first time that they had used the technique.The Ideals express the aims and ambitions of the war through use of allegory and symbolism. Allegory is a traditional form of representation in art in which historical or mythological figures are used to communicate broader ideas and concepts. In Ideals, the message and meaning of the composition is referenced by the title of each work. Countries and concepts are represented as figures and forms. Although allegorical representation had been out of artistic fashion for some time when these prints were made, it was used here as a propaganda tool to emphasise the importance of the objectives. Through grandiose associations, the prints aimed to justify the means and realities of the war for ordinary people.Although many people praised the project, The Ideals received some criticism for their idealistic portrayal of war. Making Soldiers Bringing in Prisoners - Eric Kennington Over the Top - Eric Kennington Into the Trenches - Eric Kennington Ready for Service - Eric Kennington The Gas Mask - Eric Kennington Bayonet Practice - Eric Kennington Showing soldiers in training and at the Front, one journalist described these prints as capturing ‘the spirit of our new, young army’. Kennington was probably chosen for this subject as he had himself enlisted with the 13th (Kensington) Battalion London Regiment and fought on the Western Front, France, 1914-1915. He was wounded and discharged as unfit in 1915. These prints do not attempt to depict the horror and tragedy of war; as in most of his war art, Kennington instead champions the common soldier.Kennington was born in Chelsea, London, the son of a well-known portrait artist. He studied at St Paul’s Art School, the Lambeth School of Art and the City and Guilds School. He was appointed an official war artist from 1917-1919 and again in 1940-1943, painting portraits of sailors and airmen. Making Sailors Youthful Ambition - Frank Brangwyn The Gun - Frank Brangwyn The Look-out - Frank Brangwyn Going Abroad - Frank Brangwyn Boat-drill - Frank Brangwyn Duff - Frank Brangwyn Brangwyn’s subject reflects his interest in the sea. In many of his prints he has exploited the particular quality of lithography that enables artists to create prints similar to sketches and drawings. Brangwyn was deeply affected by the destruction and loss of life in the war, particularly in Belgium, where he had been born. He was never appointed an official war artist, but produced many further lithographs to support various charities.Brangwyn was born in Bruges to an Anglo-Welsh father and Welsh mother from Brecon. The family moved back to Britain and by the age of fifteen Brangwyn was studying under designer and socialist William Morris. As he became successful as a painter, etcher and lithographer, Brangwyn began to travel widely across the world. He had an international reputation at the time of undertaking this commission and was a member of the Senefelder Club, which promoted the medium of lithography. Making Guns Lifting an Inner Tube - George Clausen The Radial Crane - George Clausen Turning a Big Gun - George Clausen The Great Hammer - George Clausen The Furnace - George Clausen Where the Guns are made - George Clausen Clausen researched this set of prints at the Royal Gun Factory, Woolwich Arsenal, London, which manufactured armaments, ammunition and explosives for the British Armed Forces. At its peak during the First World War it employed around 80,000 people and extended over 1,30 acres. Clausen was appointed an official war artist in 1917. As an older artist he did not go to the Front line, instead recording activities on the home front.Clausen was born in London to George Clausen Senior, a decorative painter of Danish descent. He attended the Royal College of Art and South Kensington art schools, then the Académie Julian in Paris. He was a founding member of the New English Art Club and was elected Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy in 1904. He was knighted in 1927. Building Ships Ready for Sea - Muirhead Bone A fitting-out basin - Muirhead Bone A workshop - Muirhead Bone A shipyard seen from a big crane - Muirhead Bone On the Stocks - Muirhead Bone A Ship-Yard - Muirhead Bone Muirhead Bone was the first appointed official war artist. As one of Britain’s leading draughtsmen, he was renowned for the almost photographic detail he achieved in his drawings. As well as recording the war on the Front, Bone spent time on the Clyde in Scotland, documenting shipbuilding. He sketched with a notebook strapped to his hand. These prints show different stages in the building, as well as views of the yard, one from the top of crane. One journalist wrote that his series, ‘delights in the intricacies of scaffolding and mechanical contrivances’. These images were also published in a War Office publication, The Western Front, vol II, 1917.Bone was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art. He settled in London in 1901. He was an official war artist in 1916-1918, and the official Admiralty artist in 1939-1946. Bone was knighted in 1937. Building Aircraft Swooping down on a Taube - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Banking at 4,000 feet - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson In the air - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Acetylene Welder - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Assembling Parts - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Making the Engine - Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Nevinson’s prints were particularly admired when first exhibited. He ‘contrives to make the visitor almost giddy’, one critic wrote, another that he possessed ‘the power of expressing sensations rather than visual facts’.Nevinson studied lithography under Ernest Jackson in 1912. At the outbreak of war he volunteered as an ambulance driver, an experience which deeply affected him. He was appointed an official war artist in 1917. These prints follow the process of building aircraft from making parts to assembly and flight. Acetylene Welder and Assembling parts both show the growing contribution of women workers.Nevinson was born in London to the war correspondent and journalist Henry Nevinson. He studied at the Slade School and in Paris. He is one of the most renowned war artists of the period. His work was influenced by avant-garde European art movements such as Cubism and Futurism, yet slowly moved to a more realist style as he attempted to portray conflict. Work on the Land Threshing - William Rothenstein Timber-hauling - William Rothenstein Potato-planting - William Rothenstein Burning couch-grass - William Rothenstein Drilling - William Rothenstein Ploughing - William Rothenstein On 15th May 1917, Rothenstein wrote to Ernest Jackson, ‘I hope to have the 5th drawing finished early this week and the last next week. I will then come up to town and do what is needful to the stones’. He was not happy with some of his early work, writing, ‘somehow the lines seem poor and thin’. He decided to print some in a red/brown colour rather than black. These works are simple and understated, a contrast to the busyness and modernity of war shown in many of the other prints in the series. They take their cue from images of rural labour that characterised much landscape painting from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. They were probably drawn around Stroud, Gloucestershire, where Rothenstein was living.Rothenstein was born in Bradford of German-Jewish descent. He studied at the Slade School of art, London and the Académie Julian, Paris. As well as being appointed official war artist to the British Army 1917-1918, he was artist to the Canadian army in 1919. Between 1920 and 1935 he served as Principal of the Royal College of Art and in 1931 he was knighted. Tending the Wounded Casualty Clearing Station in France - Claude Shepperson Convalescence in England - Claude Shepperson In Hospital in England - Claude Shepperson Detraining in England - Claude Shepperson On Board a Hospital Transport - Claude Shepperson Advanced Dressing Station in France - Claude Shepperson These prints follow the journey of a wounded soldier from the Front Line, through treatment, to convalescence back at home. The organisers initially asked the artist Henry Tonks (1867-1937), a surgeon before becoming an artist, to respond to the work of the medical services. However, Tonks found the paper supplied ‘entirely unsympathetic’for drawing and declined. Shepperson was later commissioned for the subject and produced a very well received series.Shepperson was born in Beckenham, Kent, and was a successful water-colourist, pen and ink artist, illustrator and lithographer. Having given up law he studied art in Paris and London. He is well-known for his humorous drawings contributed to the Punch magazine between 1905 and 1920. Women's work On Munitions: Skilled Work - A. S. Hartrick On Munitions: Heavy work (Drilling and casting) - A. S. Hartrick On Munitions: Dangerous Work (Packing T.N.T) - A. S. Hartrick On the Railways: Engine and Carriage Cleaners - A. S. Hartrick In the Towns: A bus conductress - A. S. Hartrick On the Land: Ploughing - A. S. Hartrick These prints record the vital contribution made by women as part of the war effort. When more men were required for fighting in 1915, there was a call to women to 'do their bit'. In taking on jobs in areas traditionally reserved for men the female workforce raised levels of production both in factories and fields. Although much of the work was both arduous and dangerous, the war allowed many women an unprecedented degree of freedom, and an opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in previously male-dominated spheres. Hartrick was sent to make studies on the spot, and many of the compositions seem deliberately posed - as propaganda images they give no indication of the hardships and hazards that women faced on a daily basis.The artist and illustrator Hartrick was born in India and brought up in Scotland. He first studied medicine, before attending the Slade School in London, and art schools in Paris, exhibiting in the 1887 Paris Salon. In 1909 he became a founding member of the Senefelder Club. He also turned to teaching the method, writing an instruction book on Lithography As A Fine Art in 1932. Transport by Sea The Place of Safety - Charles Pears Maintaining Forces Overseas - Charles Pears Transporting Troops - Charles Pears Supplying the Navy - Charles Pears Maintaining Export Trade - Charles Pears Maintaining Food Supplies - Charles Pears The merchant navy undertook vital tasks during the war, supporting naval ships, transporting troops and carrying essential supplies. It was dangerous work and the fleet suffered great losses. Pears’ images capture the ships in great detail.Pears was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire and, although he worked as a successful illustrator and lithographer, is best known for his marine paintings. During the First World War Pears was a commissioned officer in the Royal Marines, and worked as an official naval artist from 1914-1918, and again in 1940. Throughout his career he was also a popular poster designer, creating works for organisations including the London Underground.ConservationEach of the works has been treated in the Paper Conservation studio at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Since their arrival at the Museum in 1919, the prints had been stored in their original mounts and folders for almost 100 years.Many of the prints were foxed (reddish-brown spots) and dirty. This is a sign that the paper is in poor condition and without treatment, would continue to deteriorate.Funding was sought to appoint a trainee Paper conservator to work on this project for five months. All the works were washed, pressed, repaired and re-mounted. They are now in the best possible condition and the new mounts provide excellent storage conditions. This conservation will ensure that they will be preserved for generations to come.Research has also been carried out on the type of paper used for the prints. From the watermark ‘HOLBEIN’ we have discovered that the paper was made by Spalding and Hodge, a paper merchant and manufacturer whose paper mills were located in Kent.
