Sledgehammers
1933
Medium
colour linocut on buff oriental paper
Measurements
26.3 × 31.6 cm (block) 27.9 × 33.3 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1937
© Estate of Sybil Andrews, Glenbow, Calgary, Canada
Gallery location
Gallery 8
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
Sybil Andrews was apprenticed as a welder and worked in an aeroplane factory during the First World War, when many women were recruited into traditionally male jobs. After the war, she studied at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London and in 1925 helped to establish the Grosvenor School of Modern Art, which attracted Australian artists such as Ethel Spowers and Eveline Syme. Sledgehammers is a characteristic example of the modernist colour linocuts produced by Grosvenor School artists. The print depicts six men working in unison as they lift their sledgehammers, forming a centrifugal pattern that conveys the dynamism of the new machine age.
Artwork Details
Catalogue/s Raisonné
Coppel SA26
Edition
ed. 19/60
Inscription
inscribed in pencil l.l.: Sledgehammers / Sybil Andrews (underlined) / 19/60
Accession Number
431-4
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest