Collections

Brighton Revisited

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

Brighton Revisited

The artist, then Principal Teacher of Art at Clydebank High School was awarded a 3-month residency at the Gardner Art Cetre, University of Sussex at…

The artist, then Principal Teacher of Art at Clydebank High School was awarded a 3-month residency at the Gardner Art Cetre, University of Sussex at the tail end of 1971, funded by the Scottish Arts Council. He was given a studio space and a solo exhibition, and spent his time making pen and ink sketches of parts of the campus, and in particular of nearby Brighton. These resulted in 11 relief prints executed in pure lino, or in lino and woodcut, many with frottage extensively applied to give added texture.

An impression of one of these prints 'Brighton, November' (1992.137) was purchased by the RSA from the RSA AX in 1972 through the David Muirhead Memorial Fund. The 2020 gift by the artist's family included an impression of each of the other of the Brighton prints, making the RSA the only public collection to hold the complete set.

The work is based on sketches made in the Queen’s Hotel, 1-3 King’s Road, Brighton, during a return visit to Brighton by the artist and his wife Anne (whose clothed reflection can be seen in the mirrored wardrobe doors) in 1972. An impression of this work was awarded First Prize in the Kirkintilloch Art Exhibition held in Kirkintilloch Town Hall, Union Street, in the artist’s hometown of Kirkintilloch (28 Nov – 2 Dec 1972).

The motif of images reflected in a mirror was one which recurred throughout the artist's career, commencing with the wood and linocut "The Mirror" of 1967, and most prominently used in his "Graphic Workshop" series of 1969-70 and in "The Printmaker" a large woodcut of 1975.

© The Willie Rodger Art Trust