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34 CYRIL POWER (1872-1951) The Merry-Go-Round, c.1930 Linocut printed from 2 blocks in Chinese blue and a mixture of Chinese orange & chrome orange Signed, titled and numbered in pencil from the edition of 50 30.5 x 30.4 cm (12 x 12 in) Exhibited: Cutting Edge: Modern British Print Making , Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, June - September 2019 Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 30 January - 1st June 2008; Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art, New York, 23 September - 7 December 2008; Wolfsonian, Florida International University, 29 November 2009 - 28 February 2010 The Linocut Art of Cyril Power, Osborne Samuel, 2008 Literature: Linocuts of the Machine Age , Stephen Coppel, published by Scolar Press, 1995, CEP 16, p.94 Cyril Power Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue , by Philip Vann, published by Osborne Samuel & Lund Humphries, 2008, illustrat- ed in colour, p.59, no.16 The Merry-Go-Round, like Power's other great linocut 'Appy 'Ampstead is a real tour de force of Power's vision and skill in pro- ducing intricately cut and inked lino-blocks to produce an image of such incredible kinetic energy. The Merry-Go-Round is surprisingly printed from only two lino-blocks, in Chinese and chrome orange and Chinese blue in an edition of 50 impressions. Like his linocut The Giant Racer, The Merry-Go-Round was observed by Power at the Wembley Exhibition Fun Fair in west London, not far from his home in Brook Green in Hammersmith. Power's linocut is a stark contrast to Mark Gertler's wonderful 1916 painting also titled Merry-Go-Round which is in the Tate Collection. In Gertler's famous painting the figures are geometrical in shape, giving them the appearance of dolls, painted in blue, red and yellow. It is almost sedentary compared to Power's whirling Merry-Go- Round that seems almost out of control as the riders spin around at breakneck speed, the central column appears to be bending under the momentum, the blue and orange patterning above the canopy of the merry-go-round creates a vortex of energy, the silhouetted black cut-out figures in the foreground look almost out of focus conveying the speed of the merry-go-round as the riders hold on for dear life! Price on Application