Missing image

© copyright The Artist

UNTITLED 1989

Ken Currie (1960 – )

Details

Dimension
28.8 X 25 CM
Media
LINOCUT
Accession number
P5654

Summary

This work comes for the portfolio Story From Glasgow; the final portfolio comprised 97 black and white linocuts printed over a six month period by Simon King in Cumbria, in an edition of 50. The prints are based on a chance meeting the artist had with a ‘down and out’ man, who told the artist his life history from being a skilled worker and trade union organiser, he turned to drink after the sudden death of his much loved wife and lost his home and his job ending up leading a squalid life on the streets of Glasgow where Currie met him. The prints were quickly made on lino – the drawing painted on with black gouache before softening the lino over a bar-fire to cut the design. Each work, from start to finish, took about an hour and half to do; the artist wanted the works to be direct and raw, any that became too calculated were rejected.

Further reading:
Contemporary Art in Print, Scottish National Gallery of Modern and The Paragon Press, 1995, texts by Jeremy Lewison, Duncan Macmillan and Patrick Elliott