Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1110757
70 The Sunshine Roof takes its title from a bus ride taken by Cyril Power on a summer's day, with the sliding roof open, in what was then called a Green Line coach. The company was formed in 1930 by the London General Omnibus Company, who built up a network from London to towns up to 30 miles away. The driver is the artist's middle son, Cyril Arthur Power who, on his return from Australia during the Great Depression could find no work other than as a bus conductor, later progressing to a driver. The linocut is made from four blocks. The familiar patterning above the sunshine-roof, the curve of the road ahead, the lopsided buildings on the right all suggest the speed of the bus as the fashionably hatted passengers enjoy the ride. The subject matter and structural style of this rare linocut is typical of the artists who studied under Claude Fight in the late 1920's and 30's at the Grosvenor School, combining elements of Cubism, Futurism and English Vorticism. The Sunshine Roof, c.1934 Printed from four blocks in yellow, warm brown, viridian and Prussian blue on buff oriental laid tissue. Titled, signed and inscribed TP 2, a trial proof before the numbered edition of 60. 26 x 33 cm (10 ΒΌ x 13 in) Despite the official edition size, this is an exceptionally rare print. Literature Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, published by Scolar Press, 1995, CEP 39, p.101 Philip Vann, Cyril Power Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue, published by Osborne Samuel & Lund Humphries, 2008, illustrated in colour p.97, no.39 T H E G R O S V E N O R S C H O O L : C Y R I L P O W E R ( 1 8 7 2 - 1 9 5 1 ) This work will be included in `Cutting Edge, Modern British Printmaking', a major exhibition of linocuts of the Grosvenor School, curated by Gordon Samuel, at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from June 21st to September 8th, 2019.