John Piper, Hautbois Church, Norfolk

Year: 1983
Medium: Screenprint
Dimensions: 44 x 63cm
Brief biography: b. 1903, Epsom, UK – d. 1992, Fawley Bottom, UK. Piper was a painter, printmaker and designer of stained-glass windows and both opera and theatre sets. 

Piper’s work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen-prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. He was educated at Epsom College and trained at the Richmond School of Art followed by the Royal College of Art in London.

In the early 1930s Piper exhibited with the London Group and became secretary of the Seven and Five Society which included Henry Moore, Ivon Hitchens, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth. He also made a number of trips to Paris where he befriended Alexander Calder and visited the studios of Arp, Brancusi and Jean Hélion. Surrounded by these avant-garde artists, Piper’s work of this period reflected the trend for abstraction but by the late 1930s he had returned to a more naturalistic style.

He was an official war artist in World War II and his wartime depictions of bomb-damaged churches and landmarks, most notably those of Coventry Cathedral, made Piper a household name and led to his work being acquired by several public collections.

Piper collaborated with many others, including the poets John Betjeman and Geoffrey Grigson, composer Benjamin Britten, potter Geoffrey Eastop and the artist Ben Nicholson. In his later years he produced many limited-edition prints.

Information sourced from Wikipedia and Portland Gallery.