£475.00
John Drawbridge mezzotint printed in red and black titled colour ‘Open Window’. Printed on hand made wove paper by Barcham Green. Signed, titled, and numbered 10/25 in lower margin by the artist in pencil. Fine copy.
Image size 13.5 x 7.5 cm (5.25 x 3 inches)
Sheet size 30 x 30cm (11.75 x 11.75 inches)
John Drawbridge [New Zealand 1930-2005]
Painter and print maker; born 27 December 1930 in Wellington, New Zealand, educated at Wellington Teachers College and Dunedin Teachers College; arrived in London in 1957 to study at the Central School of Arts (1957-60)and spent a year in Paris pursuing printmaking, in the early 1960s he exhibited successfully in London and obtained the commission to paint a huge mural for New Zealand House in 1961; returned to New Zealand in 1963 with his English-born wife, the sculptor and silversmith Tanya Ashken, where his abstract work had a mixed reception in his local city, Wellington; in 1967 the New Zealand Government presented one of his abstract paintings ‘Coastline, Island Bay’ to Canada to mark Canada’s centenary, although its abstract treatment aroused hostility in the Wellington press; during the 1970s he experimented with new techniques, painting on metal surfaces and exploring optical effects; made Beehive Mural in 1979 for New Zealand’s new Parliament building; as a printmaker he specialised in mezzotint; died 24 July 2005.
