The Grosvenor School of Modern Art was a private British art school and, in its shortened form ("Grosvenor School"), the name of a brief British-Australian art movement.[2] It was founded in 1925 by the Scottish wood engraver Iain Macnab in his house at 33 Warwick Square in Pimlico, London.[1][3]: 31 From 1925 to 1930 Claude Flight ran it with him, and also taught linocutting there; among his students were Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, Lill Tschudi and William Greengrass.[4]: 400
 33 Warwick Square, the former home of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art (scaffolded, centre) | |
| Active | 1925–1940[1] |
|---|---|
| Founder | Iain Macnab |
| Location | , 51°29′23″N 0°08′30″W / 51.4896°N 0.1418°W |
| Campus | 33 Warwick Square, Pimlico |
The school
The school had no formal curriculum and students studied what and when they wished. There were day and evening courses: life classes, classes in composition and design, and classes on the history of Modern Art. Frank Rutter taught a course entitled "From Cézanne to Picasso".[3]: 31 Macnab's wife, the dancer Helen Wingrave, gave a dance course.[5]: 9 Though there was no formal curriculum, all students attended Claude Flight's linocut classes.[6]
The Grosvenor School closed in 1940, merging with the Heatherley School of Fine Art.[7]
Legacy
The school did much to revive interest in printmaking in general, and particularly in the linocut, in the years between the Wars.[8] Artists associated with it have come to be known as the "Grosvenor School", and their work commands high prices.[9]
In June–September 2019, the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London hosted the first major exhibition presenting solely the output of the Grosvenor School alumni in a public museum; it was also the first major exhibition outside Australia to have considerable examples of the works by the Australian alumni Ethel Spowers, Dorrit Black and others.[10]
Alumni
Among those who studied at the school were:
- Sybil Andrews (1898-1992)
- Margaret Barnard
- Dorrit Black
- Tom Chadwick (1912–1942)[8]
- Suzanne Cooper (1916–1992)
- Pamela Drew (1910–1989)
- Anna Findlay (1885–1968)
- Ronald Grierson (1901–1993)
- Mary Elizabeth Groom (1903–1958)
- Guy Malet (1900–1973)
- Alison McKenzie (1907–1982)
- Gwenda Morgan (1908–1991), wood engraver.
- Cyril Power
- Rachel Reckitt (1908–1995), wood engraver and sculptor
- Adolfine Mary Ryland (1903–1983)
- Ethel Spowers (1890–1947)
- Eveline Syme (1888–1961)
- Barbara Austin Taylor (1891–1951), sculptor
- Lill Tschudi (1911–2004)
- William Greengrass (1898–1972), wood engraver, sculptor, one time curator at the V&A
- Colin Wyatt (1909-1975)[11]
Spowers, Black and Syme became instrumental in organising exhibitions and promoting the school in Australia.[citation needed]