- Museum number
- 1949,0411.4600
- Title
- Object: Fixing the wires
- Description
-
Two men working at top of telegraph pole. 1932
Colour linocut, printed in blue, grey and black, on oriental tissue paper
- Production date
- 1932
- Dimensions
-
Height: 300 millimetres
-
Width: 202 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Text by Stephen Coppel from Frances Carey & Antony Griffiths, 'Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960', BMP 1990, no.65
Tschudi had not yet turned 21 when she made this mature colour linocut in March 1932. In the two years since leaving the Grosvenor School she had made twenty-five linocuts; all of which, bar one, were printed in colour from several blocks. Her astonishing technical facility in linocut clearly impressed her former teacher, for Flight chose to reproduce 'Fixing the Wires' as a full-colour plate on page 15 of his textbook 'The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing' (London 1934). In addition, single-colour proofs from each of the three blocks used to make this print were illustrated in black and white on the preceding page. Flight, however, mistakenly reversed the order in which they were printed; thus the black proof (fig. 7 in Flight's book) should read as the first block, the brown proof (more properly, greyish beige, fig. 6) as the second, and the light cobalt blue proof (fig. 5) as the third. (The original colour proofs pulled by Tschudi for reproduction in Flight's handbook are now preserved in the Australian National Gallery, to which they were presented by the artist.)
Flight used this print to illustrate his idea that the colour linocut should be conceived as a composition built up from several blocks of almost equal value, and for his didactic exposition of the aesthetic qualities he sought in a successful linocut (see 'The Art and Craft of Lino Cutting and Printing', pp.17 and 52).
It is curious to observe the iconographical affinities of Tschudi's linocut with Nevinson's earlier drypoint of 1918, 'Nerves of an Army', which appeared in a limited edition of 100 for a special issue of J. E. Crawford Flitch's book 'The Great War, Fourth Year, Paintings by C.R. W.Nevinson' (London 1918).
'Fixing the Wires' was first shown in 1932 as no. 1 in the Redfern Gallery's summer show 'Modern Colour Prints' (21 July-20 August), a group exhibition of 105 prints in different media, with linocuts representing just over half the exhibits. It was offered for sale at the price of 2 guineas. The Redfern Gallery also selected this print, together with several others by Tschudi, for its series of travelling print exhibitions during the 1930s.
This print was acquired by Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, for his private collection, with a view to its ultimate bequest.
An impression of 'Fixing the Wires' was exhibited at the Women's International Art Club, London, 20 February- 13 March 1937, no. 296, priced at 2 guineas unframed; £2-12-6 framed.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1990/1 Sept.-Jan., BM, 'Avant-Garde British Printmaking 1914-1960', no. 65
2017 10 Feb-19 May, San Diego, University of San Diego, British Modern Prints from the British Museum: from the Great War to the Grosvenor School
- Acquisition date
- 1949
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1949,0411.4600
