Intrigue, memory and 'that magical quality': BITE 2011

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Frances Follin visits a new show of original prints

London’s Mall Galleries are situated just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace – so close you wonder whether the Queen might drop in some time for a coffee and cake and a look at the work on show. If Her Majesty calls round by 3 September, she will find an interesting assortment of prints made by a varied selection of artists. Names established for decades, such as John Hoyland and Sir Peter Blake, or Damien Hirst and Gary Hume (who used to represent the younger generation) show work alongside lesser-known artists. Prices are therefore very wide ranging – you can spend thousands, a few hundred, or just come to look –Admission £2.50, £1.50 concessions (Free to FBA Friends, National Art Pass holders, Westminster Res-card holders and under 16s (and the coffee and cake are very reasonable!).

Many of the works on display were selected by a special panel of selectors, and their criteria for selection are posted on the walls at intervals, next to their chosen works. Barton Hargreaves says: ‘What appeals to me strongly in each of my chosen artists is their open and questioning approach to the creation of works with print…The works all have that magical quality that only prints can have’.

Suzanne Moxhay’s work Feralis (£1200) bears this out – a gigantic, inchoate, human-like form made of leaves rises up out of a forest canopy. Is it threatening or protective? Or is it hanging crucified on the wires apparently extending from its ‘arms’ – a sort of sacrificial Green Man?

Jolanta Rejs’ ‘Past-Present’ series seems to bring pointillism into the digital age in pictures constructed of square coloured dots or pixels that half reveal, half submerge their subjects.

Another selector, Paul Coldwell, was attracted to his chosen artists by the range of methods they used – etching, woodcut, screenprint, ink jet, lithography… James Fisher’s This is how I walk when I have given up XI combines screenprinting  and lithography to create a monoprint – a unique work of art for £900. Strange bird-like forms overlap each other, some with open beaks. I was reminded of Hitchcock’s The Birds though there is nothing overtly threatening in the image.

Another selector, Richard Noyes, was also interested in technique, describing his chosen artists as using ‘very different techniques to express their vision, creating mysteries, interweaving intrigue and memory’. There is a certain Mondrian-like quality to Janie George’s Black Mirrors (lithograph and silkscreen, £270 framed/£180 unframed), where black mirrors seem to float against a black ground, each mirror showing part of the same face. And for more mystery and intrigue, what is it, exactly, that is hanging in Jo Ganter’s Hung (etching, £2100 framed/£1800 unframed)? Neil Bousfield’s panoramic Millennium Bridge (an extremely detailed engraving, £881 framed/£650 unframed) seems to echo the perspective of some weirdly distorting camera, as the bridge seems to curve away in both directions from a central viewpoint.

So what of the ‘big names’? Sir Peter Blake’s Some of the Sources of Pop Art No. 7  is a good example of his work and will set you back at least £10,000 (without a frame). John Hoyland’s boldly coloured abstract Life and Love looks a snip by comparison at £1200 unframed, while the same outlay will get you Barbara Rae’s beautiful Quarry Edge, one of the almost-abstract landscapes for which she is renowned. I loved the intense violets, greens, pinks and oranges of Bruce McLean’s stunning monoprint Pampas Grass No.12, a large work that would need a big space to set it off. Damien Hirst is represented by a kaleidoscopic image of delicate butterfly wings, Exaudi Domine, while nearby Gary Hume shows Spring Angel 05 with his characteristic large areas of bold colour.

The big works by the big names hang opposite some of the smallest images on show. Theresa Bateman is represented by postcard-sized, naturalistically coloured etchings of small areas of the human body – an ear in one, the area around one eye, seen from the side, in another. John Bryce RE’s Sunburst is a very small but extremely detailed wood engraving, in which the sky seems alive with movement. Paul Hopkiss’ vinyl cut, Ludgate Hill Bridge, Birminham and Fazely Canal, is a modestly sized work that still packs in strong visual effect. All these works are under £300.

Whether your tastes run to the abstract, the figurative, landscape, the traditional or the modern, there will be something here to interest (and maybe even tempt) you. Many works are available through the Mall’s ‘Own art’ scheme, which allows you to pay over a ten-month period. But even if you have no intention of purchasing, you can certainly have a happy hour or two looking at the wide range of images on display here.