Charlie Thomas Collection
David Gentleman: Prints and Plates
2 - 10 July 2021

Velorose is delighted to be working with Charlie Thomas to host a selling exhibition of part of his extensive art collection

Please note that booking is essential, and visitors are required to wear a face covering (unless exempt) indoors

David Gentleman (b. 1930) is one of the most prolific British artists, his extensive output bridging 20th and 21st centuries. While his artworks have appeared on a broad variety of media - from postage stamps and anti-war placards, to a 100 metre-long mural at Charing Cross London Underground station - the work itself has remained consistent, sure as it is of hand and eye

Lithographic prints from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s constitute the main focus of Gentleman’s artworks in this exhibition; with many found in major art collections such as the Tate, these signed prints (from editions of between 70 and 150) were mostly produced by the now-defunct Curwen Press

The ‘Country House and Castle’ Wedgwood Plate series dates from a similar period, released in pairs over a decade. Now approaching fifty years from their date of creation, the cultural context in which these pieces are viewed has shifted: country houses and castles are now the mainstay of the National Trust (for which Gentleman designed the ‘acorn’ logo), itself questioning the past

Back in London, the buildings of Covent Garden have been repurposed from fruit and vegetable warehouses - depositories for the spoils of empire - in to luxury apartments, international fashion and beauty stores. One viewed through the frame of an Inigo Jones archway is today a flagship Apple (not apples) store

There is now also greater historical transparency since many of these scenes were recorded, particularly in relation to The Charleston Suite, and awareness of the global industry behind the construction of this community and its structures; most of the buildings portrayed here were originally the houses of slave owners

Where our understanding of the subjects may have changed, the quality of Gentleman’s art remains undiminished; it is the self-assured nature of these images that enables them to carry such new meaning and values, keeping step with a changing world

Charlie Thomas, July 2021

Wallpaper: Trellis by Sanderson