Exhibition with Charles Brasch connection at University of Otago

A visually attractive exhibition entitled: Black + White + Grey The Life + Work of Eric Gill + Robert Gibbings began on 5 June 2015 in the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, 1^st floor, Central University Library, University of Otago, New Zealand. This exhibition highlights the collaborative process between two very important British artists, and by extension, their life and works outside that collaboration.

So if by chance you are travelling to Dunedin, please do make the time to call in and see the exhibition. You would be more than welcome.

And there is a Dunedin connection: In 1937 Dunedin-born poet and patron Charles Brasch lived at Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, about 5 miles north east from Gill’s third residence at Pigotts, High Wycombe. For a time Brasch was influenced by Gill’s ideas; he collected books by Gill (1882-1940), which are now in the Brasch Collection in Special Collections. 

And in 1947, artist Robert Gibbings (1889-1958) visited his friend John Harris, who was then University Librarian at the University of Otago. Gibbings gave Harris five printed vellum sheets: three of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1929-31) and two of John Keats’s Lamia (1928). Both these titles were printed at The Golden Cockerel Press, which Gibbings owned from 1924 to 1933. One of the ‘Canterbury’ sheets has illustrations executed by Eric Gill, sculptor, stone cutter, engraver, and typographer.

Both Gibbings and Gill have had a lasting influence in the artistic world. Gibbings created some outstanding limited edition books through his The Golden Cockerel Press. He also left some marvellously lyrical travelogues on places such as Tahiti and Ireland. Gill’s legacy is perhaps more evident. His sculptures are found in institutions throughout the world; his line illustrations are frequently reproduced; and importantly, there are his typefaces such as Perpetua and Gill Sans (the typeface used for the exhibition); the latter often used by modern-day book-makers and designers today. 

The exhibition opened on 5 June and runs through to 21 August 2015.

Hours: 8.30 am to 5.00 pm

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Dr. Donald Kerr
Special Collections Librarian
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
Phone: (03) 479-8330
Email: donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz