Caernarvon Castle I

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road

John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey and worked in his father’s solicitors’ firm until 1926. He later studied art in Richmond and London. Meeting Braque in Paris inspired him to make abstract art and to exhibit with the Seven and Five Society (1934–35). In 1935 Piper collaborated with Myfanwy Evans (later, his wife) on the pioneering review, ‘Axis’. He abandoned abstract art for Neo-Romanticism and during the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he recorded bomb-devastated buildings of England’s disappearing architectural heritage. A versatile artist, Piper made book illustrations, theatre designs, ceramics, stained-glass and textiles. He collaborated with Patrick Reyntiens on stained glass projects which included the baptistry window for what was then the new Coventry Cathedral, and the stained glass lantern for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Retrospectives of Piper's work were held at the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, 1973) and the Tate (1983–84).

Places

Wales, Gwynedd

Subjects

topography, castle, battlement/crenellation, moat

Materials & Techniques

screenprint

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Caernarvon Castle I

Edition

59/70

Date

1971

Medium

Screenprint

Acquisition

Purchased from Marlborough Graphics, September 1972

Inscription

below image: 59/70 / John Piper

GAC number

9812