A NEW exhibition of works by painter-printmaker Stanley Anderson RA (1884-1966), a key exponent of the revival of line engraving in Britain, is on at Aberystwyth University’s School of Art Gallery.

Drawing on works almost exclusively from private collections, the exhibition, Unmaking the Modern: The Work of Stanley Anderson, is curated by Dr Harry Heuser from the School of Art.

The new exhibition takes a closer look at Anderson’s world-view.

“Anderson’s work appears to be unconcerned with - and even oblivious of - Modernism,” said Dr Heuser. “Throughout a career spanning seven decades, it remained remarkably consistent in its themes and techniques. Indeed, most of his subjects evoke a sense of nostalgia: Craftsmen and farm labourers carrying out work that is now performed by machinery. Rural scenes that have turned into sprawling suburbia. Urban architecture that has been demolished or destroyed in wartime.

“Anderson was fiercely opposed to modernity. And yet, he did not retreat into a romanticised past but commented on the dramatic changes he observed in British society.”

Unmaking the Modern follows two main themes: one concentrates on his critique of what he called the ‘collective idiocies of Progress’ the other on the ‘continuity and harmony of spirit’ that he sought and found beyond London.

The exhibition is on at the School of Art Gallery, Buarth Mawr, Aberystwyth until 11 March. Admission is free.

To coincide with the exhibition, there will be a display of etchings from the School of Art collection by Anderson’s now celebrated students: An Exacting Taskmaster: Stanley Anderson and the Class of 1921.

Anderson was appointed etching instructor at the University of London’s Goldsmiths’ College in 1925. There he inherited an exceptional group of printmaking students that included Graham Sutherland, Paul Drury, Edward Bouverie Hoyton, William Larkins and Robin Tanner.