Chris Orr's John Ruskin, and other stories

14 October 2004 - 23 December 2004

An exhibition of the suite of ten etchings, Chris Orr's John Ruskin (1972), with related works and other prints and drawings by Chris Orr from 1973 to 2004.

Chris Orr, Ruskin and Effie in Venice, 1976, watercolour

This is the third exhibition by a contemporary artist to be held in the galleries of the Ruskin Library. Two years after the opening of the Library, we displayed the touring show of 28 photographs by John Riddy, under the title Praeterita - a commission by the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, as part of the celebrations during Ruskin's centenary year in 2000. In 2002 the painter Julie Roberts, an Arts and Humanities Research Board Fellow in Creative and Performing Arts, was invited to show a range of her paintings and drawings, including images of Ruskin and re-interpretations of the art of his Pre-Raphaelite protégés, as part of a Ruskin project.

The sequence happily continues with the work of the distinguished printmaker Chris Orr. His suite of lively and inventive etchings, Chris Orr's John Ruskin, was made in 1972, but has only rarely been exhibited in its entirety. It is shown here with some related prints and drawings, together with a new Ruskin-inspired print resulting from a recent stay at Brantwood. The rest of the exhibition is devoted to other thought-provoking, humorous and subversive subjects from a prolific output of prints and drawings, often on a large scale, including Bones (1988), an amusing take on the Oxford Museum of Natural History, and another literary narrative, The Life of W. Blake (1992).

Chris Orr was born in 1943. After studying at Ravensbourne and Hornsey Schools of Art he graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1967 with an MA in Printmaking. He became a full-time artist, combining teaching with group and individual exhibitions, and shows regularly at the Jill George Gallery in London. He has had many one-man shows in Britain, France, America, Australia, Japan and, most recently, in China. In 1995 he was elected a Royal Academician, and in 1998 became Professor of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, he lives and works in Buckingham and London.

Catalogues are available for many of our exhibitions - see our Publications List for details.

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