Laband Art Gallery at LMU will open Eric Gill: Iconographer on Jan. 26, 2012 at 3 p.m. with a curator’s lecture and reception. The exhibition features more than 100 works by the daring British artist and writer Eric Gill.
Gill (1882-1940) was a prolific artist, calligrapher, stone carver and writer whose fonts such as Gill Sans are still The popular today. Gill’s art and life were filled with deep paradoxes; he was drawn to both religious and erotic subjects in his engravings, sculpture and writings, sometimes daringly combining the spiritual and the sensual in a single work. Holding strong religious beliefs, he was greatly influenced by medieval Catholicism yet he conducted his private life in a highly unorthodox manner. He dreamt of forming a utopian community similar to a medieval artist guild, but worked frequently in self-imposed isolation. The exhibition highlights this duality and tension, presenting a selection of drawings, engravings, woodcuts, typography, and writings from the University of San Francisco’s Albert Sperisen Collection.
The opening features a lecture on Gill at 3 p.m. by Thomas Lucas, S.J., professor of art+architecture at USF and director of its Thacher Gallery, and a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Lucas co-curated the exhibition with Stuart McKee, design professor at USF.
Captions:
Left: “The Burial of Christ” from The Four Gospels, wood engraving, 1931
Right: “The Lord’s Song,” from The Lord’s Song, wood engraving, 1934
MORE ABOUT GILL
Learn more about Gill and the events associated with this exhibition, including workshops in calligraphy and bookbinding, classes about Gill, as well as a lecture by a prominent Gill scholar and author of a new book on Gill.
The exhibition is drawn primarily from The Albert Sperisen Collection of Eric Gill housed in the Donohue Rare Book Room, Gleeson Library/Geschke Center at USF with additional loans from the William Andrews Clark Library at UCLA and the William H. Hannon Library at LMU.
The exhibition and related programs are made possible by support from the College of Communication and Fine Arts, LMU’s Art and Art History Department, the Graphic Design and Printmaking programs, and the William H. Hannon Library.
LABAND ART GALLERY INFORMATION
The Laband Art Gallery opened in 1984 as part of the Fritz B. Burns Fine Arts Center with a generous gift from Walter and Francine Laband.
Hours: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.; closed Mondays and Tuesdays.