Vorticist composition (Black and Khaki?)
Maker
(artist)
1885-1963
1885-1963
Title
Vorticist composition (Black and Khaki?)
Date of Production
(circa) 1915
Medium
graphite, black ink, watercolour, bodycolour and collage (elements cut out from a separate sheet and superimposed) with scratching out on wove paper, with pinholes at all four corners
Dimensions
Height: 37.3 cm
Width: 27.8 cm
Width: 27.8 cm
Accession Number
D.2016.XX.16
Mode of Acquisition
Brigid Peppin, gift, 2016
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Copyright
© Estate of Helen Saunders
Location
Not currently on display
Keywords
Label Text
In a shocking visual pun, a figure explodes from the mouth of a rifle, simultaneously victim and gunfire. Saunders’s bold use of collage, in which most of the watercolour has been cut jaggedly from one sheet and pasted down on another, heightens the sense of explosion. This drawing produced in the teeth of war lacks the triumphalism of earlier Vorticist artworks, which celebrated the violent destruction of an old order. Here, the portrayal of violence is complicated by knowledge of its human cost.
Unusually, Saunders signed the drawing. She contributed a work to the Vorticists’ sole London exhibition in 1915 titled ‘Black and Khaki’; this may be the drawing displayed.
Unusually, Saunders signed the drawing. She contributed a work to the Vorticists’ sole London exhibition in 1915 titled ‘Black and Khaki’; this may be the drawing displayed.
Provenance
with the artist until her death in 1963; bequeathed to her sister, Ethel Saunders; bequeathed to her first cousin once removed, Helen Peppin, 1971; given to her daughter, Brigid Peppin, 1989; offered by her as a gift and part-purchase to the Samuel Courtauld Trust, 2016
Exhibition History
Praxitella: Wyndham Lewis, Helen Saunders and Iris Barry, Leeds Art Gallery, 22/06/2023-05/11/2023
Drawings Gallery Display - Helen Saunders, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2022-29/01/2023
Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 05/05/2021-23/08/2021 ...More
Blasting the future, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, 04/02/2004-18/04/2004; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 05/05/2004-25/07/2004
Blast, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, 18/08/1996-03/11/1996; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 15/11/1996-26/01/1997
Helen Saunders (1885-1963), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 09/01/1996-03/03/1996; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 16/03/1996-20/04/1996 ...Less
Drawings Gallery Display - Helen Saunders, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2022-29/01/2023
Women in Abstraction, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 05/05/2021-23/08/2021 ...More
Blasting the future, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London, 04/02/2004-18/04/2004; Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 05/05/2004-25/07/2004
Blast, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, 18/08/1996-03/11/1996; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 15/11/1996-26/01/1997
Helen Saunders (1885-1963), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 09/01/1996-03/03/1996; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 16/03/1996-20/04/1996 ...Less
Literature
Women in Abstraction, Centre-Pompidou, Paris 5 May - 23 Aug. 2021 and Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, 2 Oct. 2021 - 27 Feb. 2022
Brigid Peppin, The Thyssen 'Vorticist composition': a new attribution, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 152, no. 1290 (September 2010), 590-594
p. 592
Fig. p. fig. 22, p. 593
Peppin, Brigid, and Cork, Richard, Helen Saunders (1885-1963), exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Graves Art Gallery ,Sheffield, 1996
p. 45
Fig. p. p. 33
Brigid Peppin, The Thyssen 'Vorticist composition': a new attribution, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 152, no. 1290 (September 2010), 590-594
p. 592
Fig. p. fig. 22, p. 593
Peppin, Brigid, and Cork, Richard, Helen Saunders (1885-1963), exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Graves Art Gallery ,Sheffield, 1996
p. 45
Fig. p. p. 33
Inscriptions
Watermark: Watermark: none.
Inscription: Recto: lower right, black ink, signed with initials: "HS".
Collector's mark: none.
Inscription: Recto: lower right, black ink, signed with initials: "HS".
Collector's mark: none.
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