Wet Race Meeting by Sybil Andrews

Provenance:
Masters Gallery, Calgary, circa 1978
Private Collection, Calgary

Literature:
Peter White, "Sybil Andrews: colour linocuts/linogravures en couleur", Calgary, 1982, illustrated page 51 (figure 8)

English-born artist and renowned printmaker Sybil Andrews studied at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art and the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. It was at The Grosvenor that Andrews developed a keen interest in the medium of coloured linocuts. Although she had experimented in other mediums– such as etchings, paintings, and monotypes–linocutting was prized for its simple tools and materials, making it economical and particularly appealing to the young artist’s modest budget. From 1929 to 1938, she created a number of linocuts depicting agricultural life and sporting themes in England at the time. Preferred subjects were horse racing and jumping, hunting and rowing crews, and speedway riders. She created animated compositions that captured movement in all forms–human, animal, and mechanical. "Wet Race Meeting" depicts the human activity that is present on the sidelines of a horse race on a rainy day. Andrews was influenced by the prevailing art movements of her time, predominantly Vorticism and Futurism, in its cubist-inspired design and repeating forms.

With the beginning of World War II, Andrews returned to work as a welder for the British Power Company constructing warships. While employed there, she met a man named Walter Morgan, whom she married in 1943. The end of the war brought a major change in the couple’s lives as they decided to leave Britain to settle in Campbell River, British Columbia in 1947. Shortly thereafter, Andrews was elected to the Society of Canadian Painters, Etchers and Engravers in 1951.