SPEED

signed CLAUDE FLIGHT upper left; numbered 11/50 lower left

linocut printed in cobalt blue, yellow ochre, vermilion and Prussian blue on buff oriental laid paper
22.5 cm by 30cm; 9 x 11 1/4 in (with margins)
50 x 55cm; 19 3/4 x 21 3/4in (framed)

Property from an English Private Collector

Literature
Claude Flight, Lino-cuts: A Hand-book of Linoleum-cut Colour Printing, London, 1927, illustrated on the frontispiece
Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, London, 1995, p. 74, illustration of another example from the same edition

London is itself a Futurist City! Look at this brilliant-hued motor buses, these enormous glaring posters
(Filippo Marinetti)

Printed in 1922, Flight was instrumental in the burgeoning interest in linocut printing after the First World War, and selected the present image to adorn the frontispiece of his first linocut textbook, Lino-cuts: A Hand-book of Linoleum-cut Colour Printing published in 1927 while teaching linocut classes at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, London

Before the War Flight had attended Heatherley's School of Art, where he met his first wife. During the War he served in France as Captain in the Army Service Corps, there he purchased a neolithic chalk cave dug deep into the banks of the Seine near Paris (it subsequently became his regular summer retreat, to which he would invite his art students). In 1922 he married again, this time to Edith Lawrence, already an established artist who worked in various media, including linocuts.

Encouraged by Lawrence, Flight began to explore the medium for himself, finding it a compelling format for illustrating contemporary subject matter. He argued that the linocut was the medium of choice because it came with no historical baggage, there were no restrictions on what it could represent and linoleum was readily available, simple to work and easy to print up. In short it was the modern medium for the modern age and very much of the moment, offering the potential to introduce contemporary art to the home or the flat of the ordinary person.

In like manner, influenced by the Italian Futurists, Flight considered it the perfect way to capture the machine age and metropolitan life, expressing through his subject matter speed, dynamism and energy as in the present work. Flight noted: 'Traffic problems, transport problems; everybody is on the rush either for work or pleasure... the Painter cannot but be influenced by the restlessness of his surroundings' (The Original Colour Print Magazine, vol. 2, 1925).

The course Flight taught on linocut printing at the Grosvenor School between 1926 and 1930 and subsequently at his French cave was eagerly attended, attracting many keen adherents who became masters of the medium. His students included the likes of British artists Cyril Power and Sybil Andrews, Australians Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme, New Zealander Frank Weitzel and Swiss artist Lill Tschudi, all of whom created a remarkable body of printed work, and are collectively known as the Grosvenor School of artists.

Not surprisingly, Flight was a very popular teacher. Eveline Syme recalled: 'Sometimes in his classes it is hard to remember that he is teaching so complete is the camaraderie between him and his students. He treats them as fellow artists rather than pupils, discusses with them and suggests to them, never dictates or enforces. At the same time he is so full of enthusiasm for his subject, and his ideas are so clearly reasoned, that it is impossible for his students not to be influenced by him.' ('Claude Flight and his Teaching', The Recorder, no. 3, September 1929).

With his zeal for the medium, Flight promoted linocuts in a series of exhibitions he organised in the inter-War years, including eight annual British Linocut Exhibition shows at the Redfern Gallery (1929-31) and the Ward Gallery (1933-37). In collaboration with the Redfern Gallery, in the 1930s Flight and his students also arranged Linocut exhibitions as far afield as America, Canada, China and Australia.