{{Short description|English-Canadian artist (1898–1992)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Sybil Andrews | image = Sybil Andrews 1918.jpg | caption = Andrews in 1918 | birth_name = Sybil Andrews | birth_date = {{Birth date |1898|04|19|df=yes}} | birth_place = Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England | death_date = {{death date and age |1992|12|21|1898|04|19|df=yes}} | death_place = Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada | field = Linocut | training = Heatherley School of Fine Art | spouse = Walter Morgan (m. 1943) | movement = Modernism | works = | patrons = | influenced = | awards = }} '''Sybil Andrews''' (19 April 1898 – 21 December 1992) was an English-Canadian artist who specialised in printmaking and is best known for her modernist linocuts.
==Life in England== Born in 1898 in Bury St Edmunds, Andrews was unable to go straight to art school after high school, since her family could not afford the tuition fees. Given the shortage of young men at home during the First World War, in 1916 she was apprenticed as a welder, working in the Bristol Welding Company's aeroplane factory, helping in the development of the first all-metal aeroplane.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The Essential Line of Sybil Andrews | journal = Interface | volume = 5 | issue = 2 | date = February 1982}}</ref> During this period, she took an art correspondence course. After the war, Andrews returned to Bury St Edmunds, where she was employed as an art teacher at Portland House School. Between 1922 and 1924 she attended the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London.<ref name="sybilandrews.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.sybilandrews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2|title=Biography|website=Sybil Andrews Heritage Society|year=2014|access-date=12 June 2016}}</ref>
Andrews continued to practice art and met the architect Cyril Power, who became a mentor figure, and then her working partner until 1938. Between 1930 and 1938, Andrews and Power shared a studio in Hammersmith, where they developed a great collaboration, influencing each other and adopting similar printmaking techniques, especially linocut.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School|last=Coppel|first=Stephen|publisher=Ashgate Pub Co.|year=1995|isbn=0-85967-945-4}}</ref> The two produced a series of sports posters together, including posters promoting tennis at Wimbledon and the Epsom Derby for London Transport, under the joint signature of "Andrew Power."<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art|last=Butler|first=Cornelia H.|publisher=Museum of Modern Art|year=2010|location=New York}}</ref><ref name="DBownes">{{cite book|author=David Bownes|publisher=london transport museum|year=2018|title=Poster Girls |isbn=978-1-871829-28-0}}</ref>
With the beginning of the Second World War, Andrews returned to work as a welder, this time for the British Power Company, constructing warships. There she met Walter Morgan, whom she married in 1943.<ref name="sybilandrews.com" /> Seven wartime depictions of ships by Andrews are in the collection of the Royal Air Force Museum London.<ref>{{Art UK bio|ref=1}}</ref>
In England, one of the largest collections in public ownership is held by St Edmundsbury Borough Council Heritage Service at Bury St Edmunds. This collection includes a number of early watercolours, executed while the artist was still living in Suffolk. Although Andrews had worked in other mediums – such as etchings, paintings, and monotypes – her main passion and interest remained linocuts from the late 1920s on.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|title=Obituary: Sybil Andrews|last=Parkin|first=Michael|date=December 28, 1992|work=The Independent}}</ref>
==The Grosvenor School== In 1925, Andrews was employed by Iain Macnab as the first secretary of The Grosvenor School of Modern Art, where she also attended Claude Flight's linocutting classes.<ref name="Obituary">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sybil-andrews-1565650.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sybil-andrews-1565650.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Sybil Andrews|last=Parkin|first=Michael|date=1992-12-28|work=The Independent|location=London|access-date=2 May 2009}}</ref><ref name="Spalding">{{cite book|author=Frances Spalding|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1990|title=20th Century Painters and Sculptors |isbn=1-85149-106-6|author-link=Frances Spalding}}</ref> Around 1926 she began producing linocuts and one of her earliest prints ''Limehouse'' is in the British Museum Collection.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=703518&partId=1&searchText=Sybil+andrews&page=1 | title=Limehouse}}</ref> Between 1928 and 1938 she exhibited linocuts extensively through shows organised by Flight.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://read.uberflip.com/i/569003-sybil-andrews-and-the-grosvenor-school-linocuts|title=Online publications - Sybil Andrews and the Grosvenor School Linocuts by Hana Leaper|website=read.uberflip.com|access-date=2016-05-25}}</ref>
In 1922, Andrews and Power moved to London.<ref name=":2"/> Three years later, the pair became part of the staff of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art – Power was appointed as one of the founding lecturers, while Andrews became the school's first secretary.<ref name=":0" /> Both Power and Andrews were swept up in Britain's linocut craze of the 1920s and 1930s under the tutelage of Claude Flight, instructor and champion of linocutting at the Grosvenor School.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Coppel|first=Stephen|year=1987|title=Grosvenor School Prints: The colour linocuts of the grosvenor school of modern art|journal=Antique Collecting|volume=22|issue=4|pages=18–23}}</ref> Flight, a proponent of the relatively new medium, believed that linocuts were most appropriate for expressing the modern age in which they lived, particularly because artists were able to move forward and stamp their own unique mark on the medium, free from the confines of tradition unlike the woodcuts based in historical Japanese methods.<ref name=":1" /> Likewise, Andrews quickly absorbed Flight's enthusiasm for linocutting and made it her life's work.<ref name=":0" />
Andrews' contemporaries, fellow students of Claude Flight, include Swiss artist Lill Tschudi, and Australian artists Dorrit Black, Ethel Spowers, and Eveline Syme.<ref name=":0" /> The Grosvenor School style was influenced by elements of cubism, futurism and vorticism – capturing the machine age through dynamism and movement.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last=Laurence|first=Robin|date=Summer 1995|title=Remembering Sybil Andrews|journal=Canadian Art|volume=12|issue=2|pages=74–79}}</ref>
==Process and techniques== thumb|''Michaelmas'' - Sybil Andrews (1935) Unlike the laborious and difficult woodcutting technique, linocutting was prized for its simple tools and materials, making it economical and particularly appealing to Andrews – a woman of modest means.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Andreae|first=Cristopher|year=1995|title=British linocutters make their mark in an industrial age|journal=Christian Science Monitor|volume=88|issue=1|pages=16}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Following Flight's process, Andrews used ordinary household linoleum, gouges made from umbrella ribs, and a simple wooden spoon to rub against the paper during printing.<ref name=":2" /> The softness of linoleum prevented the cutting of fine lines, resulting in the bold shapes seen in Andrews's works.<ref name=":1" /> Alternately, Andrews often applied a technique of repetitive hatch-marks in order to create the impression of texture.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=Sybil Andrews: Colour linocuts = linogravures en couleur|last=White|first=Peter|publisher=Glenbow Museum|year=1982|location=Calgary, Alta., Canada}}</ref>
Flight's most technical achievement to the medium was abandoning the key-block, forcing his students to create structure with color.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last=Finch|first=Christopher|year=1995|title=Art: modern British linocuts|journal=Architectural Digest|volume=52|pages=156}}</ref> In this way, Andrews relies on three to five blocks (one per color) and common print inks applied with a simple roller in order to create her lively prints.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" />
== Formal qualities and subjects == Andrews was influenced by the prevailing art movements of her time, predominantly Vorticism which had strong roots in England and Futurism which originated in Italy, by combining both styles she was able to reflect upon the fast-paced changes inherent to a modernizing society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sybilandrews.com/|title=Home|last=Toupin|first=Gilles|website=www.sybilandrews.com|language=en-gb|access-date=2017-05-11}}</ref> Sharing Flight's fascination with motion, Andrews creates compositions which capture movement in all forms – human, animal, and mechanical.<ref name=":2" /> A recurring theme in Andrews's work is sport, from horse racing and jumping, to rowing crews, otter hunting, and speedway riders; through this, she conveys the exhilaration, speed and thrill of action.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last=Jenkins|first=Nicholas|year=1993|title=Reviews: Sybil Andrews|journal=ARTnews|volume=92|issue=2|pages=113}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> Andrews furthermore portrays the vibrancy found in typical English social imagery, which ranged from rural life, farmlands, manual work, and the various intricacies of city life.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /> Additionally, during the 1930s, Andrews created seven linocuts based on the drama of the life of Christ.<ref name=":0" />
Formally, Andrews’ works utilizes the principles of modernist design: simplified, geometric forms combined with vibrant, flat colors, and dramatic arrangements – suggesting the dynamism of modern life.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" /> Another common technique employed by Andrews is the retention of the paper, which functions as its own color resulting in sharp definition and high contrast between forms.<ref name=":3" /> Perhaps most significant is Andrews's staple device of a "centrifugal force-field," where elements of the composition rotate around a central point in order to create the illusion of movement.<ref name=":1" />
== Exhibition history == Andrews regularly exhibited her work at the “Exhibitions of British Linocuts” – an annual exhibition organized by Claude Flight at the Redfern Gallery in London between 1929 and 1937.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Parkin|first=Michael|year=1987|title=Claude Flight and the Linocut|journal=The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts|volume=6|pages=26–33|doi=10.2307/1503911|jstor=1503911}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Flight arranged for these exhibitions to tour Britain and travel to other countries as far away as the United States, China, and Australia.<ref name=":0" />
By 1945, the works of the Grosvenor School artists had lost their appeal and came to be considered “outdated” and “old-fashioned.”<ref name=":1" /> For almost four decades, the linocuts of Andrews and her contemporaries had been virtually forgotten.<ref name=":6" /> It was not until the 1970s–80s that Andrews was rediscovered in the art world, now being recognized as one of the Grosvenor School's best artists.<ref name=":4" /> Her print ''Speedway'' sold at Sotheby's auction for £85,000.00 – the most expensive print sold by a member of the Grosvenor School.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=Susan|year=2012|title=The Art Market|journal=Apollo|volume=175|pages=84–86, 88}}</ref>
Interest in her work was revived in late 2019, when the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London hosted an exhibition of the works of the Grosvenor School from June to September, which included several examples of her prints.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/2019/june/cutting-edge-modernist-british-printmaking/|title=Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking|website=Dulwich Picture Gallery|year=2019|access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref> Approximately a month after it closed, an exhibition concentrating on wholly her works opened at the Glenbow Museum in Canada, which finished in January the next year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/sybil-andrews-art-and-life/|title=Sybil Andrews: Art and Life|website=Glenbow Art Gallery|year=2019|access-date=8 November 2019}}</ref>
==Life in Canada== In 1947, Andrews and Morgan moved to Canada and settled in Campbell River, British Columbia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sybilandrews.com/biography|title=Biography|last=Toupin|first=Gilles|website=www.sybilandrews.com|access-date=2016-05-25}}</ref> Seeking a new life together after the depression of two world wars, Andrews and Morgan moved to a small cottage in the logging community on Vancouver Island where they made ends meet building and repairing boats.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7" /> Rediscovered in the art world during the 1970s and 1980s, Andrews became a local celebrity and spent the rest of her life working, painting and teaching.<ref name=":4" />
Sybil Andrews was elected to the Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers in 1951 when her linocut ''Indian Dance'' was selected as the presentation print. In 1975, while working as a teacher and focusing on her practice, she completed one of her major works ''The Banner of St Edmund''. It is hand embroidered in silks on linen and was first conceived, designed and begun in 1930. This banner now hangs in St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Bury St Edmunds, the town of her birth.<ref>{{cite web | last = St Edmundsbury | first = Borough Council | title = The Twentieth Century - 1990 - 1999 (1992). | url=http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/20thCentury90-99.cfm | access-date = 2011-04-12 }}</ref>
The Glenbow Museum in Canada holds copyright for Andrews's estate and houses the majority of her work with a collection of over 1000 examples, including the main body of her colour linocuts, original linoleum blocks, oil paintings and watercolour, drawings, drypoint etchings, sketchbooks, and personal papers. In recent years her works have sold extremely well at auction with record prices being achieved, primarily within Canada.
In 2015 an exhibition was held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada, ''A Study in Contrast: Sybil Andrews and Gwenda Morgan'', comparing and contrasting fellow Grosvenor School artists. In 2017 her work was included in the exhibition, ''The Ornament of a House: Fifty Years of Collecting'' at the Burnaby Art Gallery.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Ornament of a House: Fifty Years of Collecting|last=Cane, Jennifer|first=van Eijnsbergen, Ellen|publisher=Burnaby|year=2017|isbn=9781927364239|location=Burnaby}}</ref> A full exhibition history is available in ''Sybil Andrews Linocuts''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sybil Andrews Linocuts|last=Leaper|first=Hana|publisher=Lund Humphries|year=2015|isbn=9781848221802|location=London|pages=Appendix}}</ref>
==Collections== *National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sybil Andrews |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.22855.html}}</ref> *Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://aggv.ca/emuseum/search/sybil%20andrews* |website=aggv.ca |publisher=AGGV |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *The Burnaby Art Gallery<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collections.burnabyartgallery.ca/gallery?q=Sybil+Andrews&p=1&ps=18|title=Burnaby Art Gallery: Collections|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317035655/http://collections.burnabyartgallery.ca/gallery?q=Sybil+Andrews&p=1&ps=18|archive-date=2018-03-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> *Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.glenbow.org/art-artifacts/library-archives |website=www.glenbow.org |publisher=Glenbow Museum, Calgary |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *National Gallery of Canada<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/search-the-collection?search_api_views_fulltext=sybil+andrews&sort_by=search_api_relevance |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *Virtual Museum of Canada *Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England<ref>{{cite web |title=Sybil Andrews |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/search/?q=sybil+andrews&year_made_from=&year_made_to= |website=collections.vam.ac.uk |publisher=Victoria and Albert Museum, London |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *Moyse's Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK *Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/search/sybil%20andrews/results |website=collections.tepapa.govt.nz |publisher=Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA<ref>{{cite web |title=Sybil Andrews |url=https://art.famsf.org/search?search_api_views_fulltext=sybil+andrews |website=art.famsf.org |publisher=Fine Art Museums of San Francisco |access-date=2021-08-05}}</ref> *The Bank of New York Mellon Collection, USA (Private Collection)
==Further reading== *Reeve, Christopher. [https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007CBTG0 ''Something to Splash About; Sybil Andrews in Suffolk.''] St Edmundsbury Museums 1991: Bury St Edmunds, {{ISBN|0-9501430-7-3}} *{{cite book |last1=Leaper |first1=Hana |title=Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue |date=2015 |publisher=Lund Humphries|location=London|isbn=9781848221802 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26RDrgEACAAJ |access-date=24 May 2022}} *{{cite book |last1=Nicol |first1=Janet |title=On the Curve: The Life and Art of Sybil Andrews|date=2019 |publisher=Caitlin Press|isbn=9781987915877 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSNQugEACAAJ |access-date=13 October 2022}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Art UK bio}} *Glenbow Museum [https://www.glenbow.org/art-artifacts/library-archives] *Redfern Gallery [https://web.archive.org/web/20071010003114/http://www.redfern-gallery.com/pages/thumbnaillist/30.html thumbnails of a selection of works] *Digitised images of works held in UK public ownership available to view at [https://ehive.com/objects?query=sybil+Andrews ehive]. *Sybil's Cottage [http://www.sybilandrews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=3''Sybil Andrews Heritage Society''] images of the restoration of the cottage on Campbell River. *[http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/party.aspx?irn=3944 Images of works by Sybil Andrews in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa] {{Grosvenor School}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Sybil}} Category:1898 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Artists from Bury St Edmunds Category:20th-century British printmakers Category:20th-century English women artists Category:Alumni of the Grosvenor School of Modern Art Category:Alumni of the Heatherley School of Fine Art Category:Artists from British Columbia Category:British women in World War I Category:English printmakers Category:People associated with the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa Category:People from Campbell River, British Columbia Category:Canadian women printmakers Category:English emigrants to Canada Category:Linocut artists Category:British women printmakers