Artists That Inspire

Sybil Andrews

Sybil Andrews first career wad as an apprentice welder builidng aircraft in World War I. She was born in Bury st Edmunds, in 1898 and was best known for her stylized linocuts portraying daily life. In 1914 she was greatly influenced by #Vorticism started by #WyndhamLewis. Lewis was tired of much of the what he called the effeteness of British are and so created works which he described as ‘a new living abstraction. It combined #Cubism with the urban environment of the new machine age.

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The end of the war saw the end of Vorticism as the avant- garde became unpopular after the horrors of the conflict. Andrews using dynamic forms overlaid figures in action instead of traditional perspective drawing to convey space. After the war, she taught at the Portland House School and it was there she met artist #CyrilPower who became her mentor and major influence. They became collaborators for almost 20 years, co-authoring prints under the name “Andrew Power”.

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She then studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in London until 1924, and became secretary at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London in 1925 where she would later teach. #ClaudeFlight’s #linocutting classes (a relatively new medium at the time) inspired her to make this medium her life’s work. Her work was exhibited from 1928 to 1935 regularly thanks to Flight. #TheGrosvenorStyle emerged which captured the machine age through dynamic movement often using geometric forms so popular during the #ArtDeco era.

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World War II saw her returning to welding, this time ships for the war effort. When the war ended, she moved to British Columbia, where she gained widespread acclaim and recognition. Andrews died on December 21, 1992.

Related Artists: #ClaudeFlight, #CyrilPower, #EthelSpowers