Eric Gill The Sculpture

This beautifully illustrated book is the first ever complete survey of Eric Gill's sculptural work. With an extensive essay and 300 detailed catalogue entries, this book is the major title on the subject and a must for anyone interested in Gill's work and where to view it. Gill was one of the major artists of the 20th century and this book gives a fascinating insight into the creativity of this eccentric genius. This paperback edition makes this catalogue affordable for all.

Eric Gill was a master typographer, sculptor and wood-engraver, and a devoted family man and key personality in three Catholic art and craft communities. He also believed in complete sexual freedom. The author analyzes these apparent contradictions and considers Gill, the man and the artist.

Eric Gill is perhaps the greatest English artist-craftsman of the twentieth century. His most celebrated achievements were sculptures in stone and wood ("Prospero and Ariel" on Broadcasting House; the "Stations of the Cross" in Westminster Cathedral). Malcolm Yorke reassesses this cranky, eccentric but vulnerable and modest man and illustrates his life and work with over 100 examples of Gill's engravings, sculptures and erotic drawings.

A prolific engraver, sculptor, letter-cutter and typographer, Eric Gill (1882 - 1940) chose to be remembered on his grave simply as a stone carver. He carved his first figural sculpture in 1909, and his distinctive, serene figures, such as his famous Stations of the Cross carving in Westminster Cathedral, have since become familiar landmarks and also appear in public and private collections throughout the world. This beautifully illustrated book is the first ever complete survey of Eric Gill's figural sculpture. With an extensive essay on his works and 300 detailed catalog entries, it is a significant contribution to contemporary art history. The 350 accompanying photographs, many from the sculptor's own collection, reveal Eric Gill to be one of the major artists of the twentieth century and afford us a fascinating insight into the creativity of this eccentric genius.

A prolific engraver, sculptor, letter-cutter and typographer, and a prominent figure in the development of British art, Eric Gill (1882-1940) chose to be remembered on his grave simply as a stone carver. He carved his first figural sculpture in 1909, and his distinctive, serene figures have since become familiar landmarks, appearing in numerous churches and on village war memorials, on buildings such as the BBC's Broadcasting House in London and in public and private collections throughout the world. The expressive simplicity of Eric Gill's sculpture derives in part from his practice of carving directly from the block, reviving a tradition largely neglected since the Middle Ages. From slender crucifixes and tender Madonnas to lithe animals and vuloptuous lovers, his figures overflow with what the critic Roger Fry identified as an "unquenchable will to live", a will which sprang from a deep conviction of the interdependence of the spiritual and the sensual sides of life."

A new study of the provocative British artist. Gill fused eroticism and mysticism in clear, direct and fluid graphic lines, which upset parts of the establishment (a couple are shown in one print making love while being blessed by the hand of God; in another, a nude Mary Magdalene embraces Christ on the Cross). Hoyland explores the relationship between the spiritual and the sensual in Gill's many prints and drawings, including the Song of Songs woodcuts.