The Red House Museum is pleased to showcase the life and achievements of the noted letter cutter and stone carver John Andrew (1933-2021). The exhibition is open 29 July to 15 October 2023.
This retrospective exhibition highlights the work of letter cutter and stone carver John Andrew (1933-2021) who lived and worked in the Christchurch area. An apprentice stonemason he mastered the skills which later resulted in major public and private commissions. Post National Service he studied at the Royal College of Art and was subsequently assistant to celebrated Dorset-based wood engraver Reynolds Stone undertaking intricate heraldry and headstone-carving. A long career at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design followed. In addition to teaching graphic design, he undertook commissions for prestigious advertising companies and publishers designing book-jackets. His creative letter cutting resulted in distinctive memorial stones for Memorials by Artists (now The Lettering Arts Trust) and made a major contribution to restoring the tradition of memorial craftsmanship. He later joined Poole Printmakers and due to failing eyesight often made linocuts of work he had previously cut in stone.
John Andrew’s gifted craftsmanship led to over three decades of collaboration with Ian Hamilton Finlay, internationally renowned poet and artist. Some of the resultant work is held by Tate Britain and National Galleries of Scotland. He contributed 32 works to Little Sparta, Finlay’s garden in the Scottish Lowlands, adding to its worldwide acclaim. Images of these notably Nuclear Sail (1973), his sleek, slate monolith of a submarine’s conning tower, along with watercolours from the 1990s (by Little Sparta artist-in-residence, Janet Boulton) are on display with further examples of his varied stone and graphic work on loan from national and private collections.
The exhibition has been curated by biographer and art historian, Dr Gill Clarke in collaboration, with Pauline Andrew, wife of the late John Andrew. Clarke has published widely on twentieth-century British art and guest curated exhibitions for St Barbe Museum and Art Gallery, Lymington; Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery, Bournemouth, and Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. Her books include Evelyn Dunbar: War and Country and Randolph Schwabe: A Life in Art.
Included in the exhibition are loans from Southampton City Art Gallery and Russell-Cotes Museum and Art Gallery.
The exhibition is kindly sponsored by Friends of the Red House Museum, CADarts and Phoenix Marble and Granite. A programme of events and workshops accompany the exhibition.
