Welcome to the Archive of the Permamnent Collection at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol UK : by title : Margaret Lovell

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Artist     Margaret Lovell
Title      Helmet I
Date      1962
object    Print
Media    etching
Size      33 x 30 cm
Ref          762

Purchased from the 135th RWA Annual Exhibition in 1987

Other websites featuring this artist's work
www.rwa.org.uk/memfrm.htm
www.margaretlovell.co.uk
www.rbs.org.uk

Helmet I
Talking about her print, ‘Helmet I’, Margaret Lovell tells us:

“

At this time, whilst at the Slade, we had to take a subsidiary subject, though I really was only interested in sculpture. I chose to become involved in etching because it could be related to sculpture

”.

Whilst learning the techniques of engraving, Margaret says she saw it as making a sculptural form, in that the engraving with a burin was three dimensional, and even when printed, the incised channel that filled with ink then became a three dimensional line.

Similarly she used drypoint and intaglio, not only to draw and study (in this case a human cranium), but also to create a huge scale sculpture (in miniature)! Prints were taken at various stages of development, but ‘Helmet I’ is the result of a final version after the plate had been etched right through and re-assembled and brazed together. Margaret remarked: “It seemed logical to create a helmet form, which is there to protect the head, from a plate on which the design and rhythms of the form of a cranium had been explored". It became the passion of making the relief copper plate ‘sculpture’ that was almost incidentally destined ‘to be printed’. She was also innovative in making zinc reliefs and low reliefs in plaster for printing at this time, pushing techniques and blankets on the printing rollers to their limits. Following ‘Helmet I’, the design was used to make a huge escutcheon plate/door knob in bronze for the Armourer’s House in Bristol.

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