Eric Gill Exhibition

1882 - 1940
   This is a selection of images in the exhibition, we have over 50 wood engravings in the show, prices are from £125 - £2,500

British sculptor, engraver, typographer, and writer. He began to earn his living as a letter cutter in 1903 and carved his first figure piece in 1910. In 1913 he became a convert to Roman Catholicism and was commissioned to make fourteen relief carvings of the Stations of the Cross for Westminster Cathedral (1914-18). These and the Prospero and Ariel group on Broadcasting House, London (1929-31), are his best-known sculptures.

Gill was one of the chief protagonists in the movement for the revival of direct carving, and his work usually has an impressive simplicity of conception; he wrote that his “inability to draw naturalistically was, instead of a drawback, no less than my salvation. It compelled me ….. to concentrate upon something other than the superficial delights of fleshy appearance…… to consider the significance of things”. In life, as in his work and writing, he was an advocate of a romanticized medievalism, and he tried to revive a religious attitude towards art and craftsmanship. His unconventionality was well known in his own time (he disliked trousers, for example, preferring to wear smocks).

Gill was an important figure in book design and typography as well as sculpture. He illustrated many books, and his ‘Perpetua’ and ‘Gill Sans Serif’ typefaces are among the classics of 20th century typography. His books include Christianity and Art (1927), Art (1934), and Autobiography (1940).