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Copyright © Martyn Ould 2007. | ||
THE OLD SCHOOL PRESSAn occasional newsletter
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April 2007 |
a
note about the |
where the original watercolours from The Bricks of Venice were on show | |
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In January there was an exhibition in Venice of the original watercolours by Peter Harris from his The Bricks of Venice. January is not an obvious time to visit La Serenissima but we have been there often enough to know that, whatever the time of year and whatever the weather, you will not be disappointed. The Circolo Artistico di Venezia has fine premises in what must be one of the prime locations in the city, the Palazzo delle Prigioni in Venice, right next to the Bridge of Sighs. As well as a large sala used for concerts they have a smaller room to the side that is used for art exhibitions. Through Venetian friends of the Harris family (the Harrises lived there for seven years), the Circolo kindly agreed to host the exhibition. We arrived a few days earlier and assisted in hanging the sixty-six watercolours which had arrived - of course - by boat from England. There was a private view with, naturally, prosecco and canapés on the first evening and, after some speeches about Peter Harris and his work, the doors to the exhibition were thrown open. We had taken a copy of the book for the opening evening. You can find pictures of the exhibition at our website. | |
a
note about the art fair |
where The Old School Press exhibited | |
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About two weeks beforehand, the organisers of the Modern Works on Paper art fair at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, decided to open one of the rooms to ten presses, and The Old School Press was amongst them. We were fortunate in being able to say 'yes' at short notice. Do you remember the joke (now rather politically incorrect, but I continue ...) about the two shoe salesmen who went on a sales trip to a primitive country. One telegraphed back (this is an old joke) 'terrible news, no-one here wears shoes'. The other telegraphed back 'Great news, no-one here wears shoes'. This was of course the situation at this exhibition. The opportunity was to get books in front of a new audience. We had a spacious and well-lit room, though four days of immersion in fluorescent lighting was exhausting for the exhibitors. It was essentially a cul-de-sac - the room at the end of the road - so it was fascinating watching the reactions of those coming to the threshold from the main galleries. Visitors reached that point after traversing the conventional galleries, with their sparse pictures on white walls, prices in the tens of thousands, and salespeople in suits. Suddenly they were confronted with what at first glance must have looked like a bring-and-buy sale in year 3's classroom. There were two distinct reactions: the turn-on-the-heels and the cautious frown. Those that survived the initial shock and ventured in were invariably heard to utter the words 'I never realised people were making such beautiful books any more' as they went from stand to stand, smiling. There was general amazement at the fact that you could acquire art in a finely printed book for the price of a decent dinner for two. Sales were good and, importantly, to new customers. | |
a
note about the |
where The Old School Press exhibited | |
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The newly-formed CODEX Foundation held an ambitious Book Fair and Symposium in Berkeley, California in February. For a first shot it was very well organised and a great tribute to leading light Peter Koch and his team. Location and arrangements went smoothly, and it was a great opportunity to meet North American customers and a wide variety of book-makers from around the world. Representing the UK were Gregynog, Impact, Old Stile, Incline, Righton, Fox Ash, and The Old School, as well as Harmatan and Bookmarc Leathers. Our principal reason for going was of course the two days of the Book Fair, but the Symposium offered some respite from the heavy business of selling books. Sarah Bodman from the University of West of England gave a conspectus of book arts in the UK which left me wondering why there was not more interaction between the people she was describing (who, if I had heard of them at all, I only knew from the UWE Book Arts Newsletter) and the sort of people who exhibit at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair. If I told you that the next speaker, Felipe Ehrenberg ('Cutting and pasting: metaphor for life'), was Mexico’s Cultural Attaché to Brazil you would get entirely the wrong idea. Demonstrating that the Zapata moustache lives on, though now greying, Ehrenberg took the opportunity to contrast our mundane lives as computer consultants and printers with his, covering book installations, establishing community presses in Mexico and Nicaragua and the Beau Geste press in the UK, producing performance pieces, and (as it sounds) a lifetime of heavy smoking. I skipped the panel discussion on 'Integrating the Arts of the Book in the Academic Curriculum', but one other lecture I did attend was Robert Bringhurst's 'Spiritual Geometry, the book as a work of art'. Such titles rather put me off but it was well worth going, offering more insight per minute than all the academics put together. I look forward to reading his lecture when it is published. I have no intention of trying to summarise it here! | |
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click to see an index of our newsletters
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Copyright © Martyn Ould 2007. | ||
