Lill Tschudi 1911-2004

Printed from 1 block in black.

Printed from 3 blocks in cobalt blue, red & yellow ochre.

Signed, titled & numbered from an edition of 50.

Ref: Coppel LT 12

Stephen Coppel, ‘Linocuts of the Machine Age,’ published by Scolar Press, 1995, p. 129, LT 4

Additionally signed and titled in pencil in the lower margin

This study of Waterloo Tube station derives from an exercise at the Grosvenor School. Cyril Power, who lectured at the School, was also making his first linocuts inspired by the London Underground at this time.

Linocuts of the Machine Age, Stephen Coppel, published by Scolar Press, 1995, LT24

Cutting Edge: Modern British Print Making , Dulwich Picture Gallery, Philip Wilsons Publishers, , 2019, p.87

Printed from 3 blocks in dark blue, light brown & light blue.

Lill Tschudi was a Swiss artist (1911-2004) from the town of Schwanden in the municipality of Glarus. She saw an advertisement in The Studio magazine for classes at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London and enrolled there in December 1929.  She stayed for six months, learning a revolutionary new method of linocutting taught by the charismatic Claude Flight, a teacher and artist who ran a course on Tuesday afternoons. Tschudi became a good friend of Flight’s and his companion the artist Edith Lawrence. Her linocuts like many of her fellow students who attended Flight’s classes are concerned with rhythm, velocity and dynamism of modern life of the Jazz Age.

Sailor’s Holiday shows a group of sailors printed in blues, black and brown, the white being part of the blocks that are left uncut and un-inked. It is not known where the scene is but after her time in London Flight suggested she go to Paris to broaden her work.  She spent two months there each year and studied under Fernand Leger, Andre Lhote and Gino Severini. The image suggest Paris as the location; the central figure looks like an accordion player perhaps.  The linocut was made in an edition of 50 in the 1930s but a second edition was begun in 1984 for the US market on the strength of the revival of interest in the Grosvenor School linocuts.  This second edition is annotated ‘USA’ and numbered from 50 as well.

This was an idea for a travel poster from which Tschudi created ‘The Skier’ Ref: Coppel LT34