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Robert Medley
Title Page: Samson Agonistes, a Dramatic Poem. The Author, John Milton
1978

About the Item

Born in London, Robert Medley studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art, the Royal Academy and the Slade School of Art in the 1920s. As a student he met Rex Whistler, Stanley Spencer and several Bloomsbury artists. During 1935-1939 he designed sets and costumes for Group Theatre productions of works by his good friend, W. H. Auden and by T. S. Eliot. Medley served in the Middle East during the Second World War and became an Official War Artist. He enjoyed a long career in fine art education, teaching at many London art schools. In 1982 he was awarded a CBE and elected a Royal Academician in 1986. Retrospectives of his work included shows at the Whitechapel Gallery (1963) and at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1984). Medley made several screenprints in the late 1970’s illustrating Milton’s ‘Samson Agonistes’ and inspired by the late cut-outs by Matisse. ‘I have always enjoyed reading poets in the contemporary editions. The typography is part of their epoch and the look of the page which we can touch and see is like entering their homes by the front door. It was not until I had completed a number of designs that it dawned on me that the freehand imperfections of paper cutting gave a rough kind of organic vitality that was right for, and perhaps was unconsciously influenced by, the irregularities of C17th popular printing.’ There were two editions of Samson Agonistes, the first group of 16 produced in 1978, measuring 68.5 x 52cm and the second group of 23 in 1981, measuring 51 x 40.5cm. This work is an unsigned printers proof copy measuring 41 x 31 cm

Creator:

Robert Medley (1905 - 1994, British)

Creation Year:

1978

Dimensions:

Height: 16.15 in (41 cm)Width: 12.21 in (31 cm)

Medium:

Screen

Period:

1970-1979

Condition:

Gallery Location: