Exhibition 'John Piper’s Brighton Aquatints' in Brighton Museum and Art Gallery
The significance of John Piper’s Brighton Aquatints book – published just after the outbreak of war in November 1939 – in his artistic development is widely recognised, but has never before been explored in detail. The slim volume of landscape views, with its marbled paper boards, hovered on the brink of Victorian pastiche; while his choice of a printmaking medium redolent of the early 19th century seemed a perfect match for the architectural period of the town.
But for all the nostalgia of its subject and style, Brighton Aquatints was a clear indicator of Piper’s awareness of avant-garde art. This display will explore Brighton Aquatints through related books, letters, sketches, prints and designs, and will be curated by architectural and design historian Alan Powers. It will coincide with the publication of a new edition of Piper’s Brighton Aquatints with an introduction and commentary by Powers, published by The Mainstone Press.
