Curwen and Collaborative Printmaking

Harold Curwen took over the management of the family business Curwen Press, then in Plaistow East London, in the early part of the 20th century. The historic relationship between the Curwen and artists’s own involvement in printed image making began in those early years.

Harold had just returned from Leipzig imbued with fresh ideas about typographical design and the importance of employing artists on creative projects in his own printing works. His plan was to invigorate publishers and public alike, armed with enthusiasm for new, modern ideas.

Harold was a true pioneer of his time. Many of his associates in the London printing world such as the Design and Industry Association were very sympathetic to his views and together formed a strong influence over the future course of printing and publishing, not only in the British Isles but in Europe and America too.

At the end of World War One Harold Curwen was joined by Oliver Simon (and later Oliver’s brother Herbert) who shared an enthusiasm for the encouragement and the employment of artists in both printed image making and good design.

From the early 1920’s onwards this policy was to produce Curwen’s world wide reputation for the distinguished quality of its printed work with artists together with its highly skilled craftsmen. Over the next decades Curwen established a tradition of creativity exemplified by such artists as Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland, Edward Bawden, Eric Ravillious, Bernard Freedman, and a host more of designers, illustrators, painters and sculptors; their work with Curwen was to establish their own future reputations.

This renaissance lasted until the outbreak of World War Two when the company came under government controls, and later suffered bomb damage during the London Blitz. Despite these restricting events Curwen carried on printing work.

After the war the development of Fine Art publishing began to spread from the continent to London under the encouragement of Robert Erskine of the St George’s Gallery in Cork Street, London. Erskine’s problem was to locate a studio in which to provide professional facilities for the English artists he personally wished to publish, most particularly those who worked in lithography.
Timothy Simon and his cousin Robert Erskine, now the two young directors of the Curwen Press, were equally anxious to provide this studio facility in order to continue their company’s association with artist’s, and to encourage printmaking in this country.

The Curwen Studio opened its doors in November 1958. Master Printer Stanley Jones was invited from Paris where he had been working at Atelier Patris to help start this new venture. It was good timing, post war economic restrictions were beginning to ease and there was new interest in the making of contemporary artists’ limited edition prints and the practice of collaborative printmaking, thus carrying on in the tradition founded by Harold Curwen. Its success grew rapidly, helped by the development of London and New York as centres of artistic activity.

In 1965 the studio was moved to premises in Tottenham Court Road with machines and staff to cope with the growing interest in original prints. In the same year the Curwen Gallery was opened in Colville Place, London W1, as a shop window for the studio. In time it was to develop its own purpose and character under Rosemary Simmons and later John and Jill Hutchings. This gallery flourished showing many young as well as established printmakers up until the retirement of Jill Hutchinson in 2017.

The Curwen Studio’s reputation grew internationally over many decades and with it the long list of artists whose work was produced in collaboration with the studio’s printmakers. When the Tottenham Court Road lease ceased in 1989 the company was bought by Sam Alper, and transferred to his premises at Chilford Hall, Linton near Cambridge where it continues it’s work with artists and their printmakers under the guidance of Master Printer Stanley Jones MBE.

During this time technological developments in the world of printing were moving at speed, and it was thought wise to preserve as much as possible of the traditional methods of printmaking for future generations of artists of all ages, to encourage development in the imaginative use of printmaking. One of the motivations in this thinking was the loss of many lithographic courses in art school.

In the year 2000 Stanley Jones with Sam Alper, under the business guidance of Lorraine Chitson the centre’s director, The Curwen Print Study Centre was formed. Lorraine with her dedicated and professional staff have very successfully pioneered the establishment of this valuable training activity, and in a manner which reflects the qualities and beliefs of those early founders, very nearly a century ago, of Curwen in their world of creative printing with artists.

Curwen Timeline