Graham Clarke
Biography
Graham Clarke’s work has a devoted international following. His hand-coloured etchings and aquatints depict, with much dry humour, ordinary people doing ordinary things and are characterised by an overflowing luxuriance of image and detail. His vision has been described as “crazy, wonderful, eccentric” and Clarke himself, whilst defying any standard categorisation can only be described as “Man of Kent, Artist, Printer and Entertainer”. Born in 1941 in Oxfordshire, Graham Clarke grew up in the London suburbs of Bromley and Beckenham. For the last twenty years he has lived in a Kent village a few miles south of Maidstone. From Beckenham School of Art, he went on to the Royal College where he completed his studies in 1964. Much of his early work was as a freelance illustrator for such clients as Shell, BBC TV, Vogue, Time Life, GPO and Readers Digest. But his best known work in this field was a series of posters for London Transport. In 1966 Graham Clarke established the Ebenezer Press to publish limited editions of his block prints, which at the time were distributed by Editions Alecto. The “Cogger” press which he used was made in 1820 and is now believed to be the only working example of its kind, the only other specimen being in London’s Science Museum. Later, etching presses were added which broadened the scope of his work and nearly all his prints are now of the ‘intaglio’ family - usually etchings and aquatints. The Ebenezer Press has produced several limited edition books, but unlike the producers of most ‘livres d’artists’, Graham Clarke not only makes the images but also the lettering and total design of the work. Subsequently he developed his own distinctive typeface, known as ‘Rural Pen’, and this was seen for the first time in his book ‘’The Goose Man’, a collection of his own poems illustrated with hand coloured aquatints. Probably the best known of the Ebenezer Press books is ‘Vision of Wat Tyler’, about which Kenneth Clark wrote: “the whole book is a splendid assertion that craftsmen still exist and cannot be killed by materialism.” In 1973, Clarke produced the first of his “arched-top” etchings. This was exhibited at the Royal Academy, and ever since he has had a steadily growing and devoted following. In 1985 Phaidon Press, in association with CCA, produced a study of his work by art historian Clare Sydney. The book proved extremely popular and subsequent publications by Phaidon have included the acclaimed Graham Clarke’s History of England and Graham Clarke’s Grand Tour, both with texts written by the artist himself. Colouring prints by hand after the printing stage produces a softness and subtlety unobtainable in any other way. This method was used by William Blake but had been used very little since the introduction of colour printing. However, since Graham Clarke reintroduced the technique some years ago it has become increasingly popular.