Collections

Brighton, November

Printmaker: Rodger, Willie, RSA RGI DUniv · 1930-2018

Brighton, November

In a letter to the Collections Assistant dated 2004-11-08 Willie Rodger provided the following production information 'Brighton November' is a relief…

In a letter to the Collections Assistant dated 2004-11-08 Willie Rodger provided the following production information 'Brighton November' is a relief print made after my spell/ as Artist in Residence at Sussex University in 1971./ It was printed from wood, lino and embossed wall paper/ The sea effect was created by chain saw marks on the wood./ The figures and groynes were printed from lino and a / fottage technique over embossed wall paper produced/ the flint beach./ 'Brighton November' was printed entirely by hand, without a press (The edition was never completed due to the wood splitting!) " The production of the print is also discussed on the CD/ DVD 'In the hands of Willie Rodger' (2006, Media Matters) where Willie Rodger explains the technique of frottage that he used for the shingle beach and how he used a section of a trunk from a tree that fell down during a severe storm in Scotland in the 1960s to create the wave effect.

The artist was the first person to be elected to the new discipline of Printmaker when he was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1989. On abolition of the Associate rank and the discreet disciplines of Painter, Sculptor and Printmaker to be replaced by the new generic discipline of Artist, he was elevated to full Academician rank in 2005.

The work was one of a number of prints executed by the artist during his 3-month long SAC funded Artist in Residence post at the Gardner Art Centre, University of Sussex in the last quarter of 1971; impressions of some of which were included in a solo exhibition at the host venue towards the end of his residency.

See the 2020 gift by the artist's family which includes an impression of every one of the prints from the so-called “Brighton Set” to go alongside the present work, which was the first work by Rodger acquired by the RSA Collections.

© The Willie Rodger Art Trust