In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Patrick Caulfield’s homage to the poetry of Jules Laforgue, Julian Page, in association with Austin Desmond Fine Art, is pleased to present an exhibition of the complete suite of twenty-two screenprints.
In the late 1960s, Caulfield was approached by the Petersburg Press to create a limited edition book. Caulfield was given the freedom to choose the subject and he decided upon the poetry of the 19th century French writer Jules Laforgue, whose work he had discovered whilst studying at the Chelsea School of Art. An early innovator of free verse, Laforgue’s poetry was linked to his love of art, specifically that of Impressionism. Indeed, for biographer Michael Collie, Laforgue was attempting to creative the literary equivalent of Impressionism.
In the book ‘Some Poems of Jules Laforgue’ (1973) Caulfield created images he imagined when reading LaForgue’s work to make the poems relevant for the modern reader.
'The images I produced are complementary images, not illustrations. Some of the connections are a bit tenuous, others are obvious. I tried to imagine what Laforgue might have been looking at when he thought of the poems, knowing of course, that certain of the images are totally of another period to Laforgue's lifetime: ‘poetic licence with poetic license’.
Caulfield produced a suite of 22 screenprints, with the title of each print taken from the poems. Vibrant and intense, these images are classic examples of the Pop Art that dominated the contemporary art scene.
All twenty two prints on show are from Portfolio Edition C, with the large margins and a sheet size of 61 x 56cm in an edition of 100.
There will be a Private View on Thursday September 14, 6-8pm.
Austin Desmond Gallery
Pied Bull Yard
68/69 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3BN
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 11am-5pm
