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John FurnivalJohn Furnival (1933-2020) was born in London and studied at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art.
Furnival taught for more than thirty years at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, and took an active role during Bath Academy's influential and innovative era in the 1960s and '70s when it was a creative hub for Concrete Poetry ('visual poetry'). Furnival and fellow artist Tom Phillips were brought in to teach at Bath by the German typographer, printer and publisher, Hansjoerg Mayer. In 1964, Furnival founded Openings Press with a visiting teacher, Dom Sylvester Houédard, and later Furnival had other small presses – Satie's Faction and Openings-Closings – to publish Concrete and Visual Poetry.
Furnival collaborated with Jonathan Williams, and was commissioned by Ian Hamilton Finlay to produce illustrations for Wild Hawthorn Press’s Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. With others in his circle, Furnival took part in the International Exhibition of ‘Experimental Poetry’ in Oxford (1965) and, decades later, in The New Concrete: Visual Poetry in 21st Century at the South Bank Centre (2015).
Furnival described himself as "a drawer; a drawer of landscapes, personages and wordscapes". With his wife Astrid, a textile artist, he lived in Gloucestershire apart from a decade in France from 2002. He exhibited internationally and his work is held in many public collections, including the Arts Council of Great Britain; Tate; the British Council; Getty collection, Los Angeles; Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami; and the British Museum.
The exhibition John Furnival: somewhere between poetry and painting was held at England & Co (8 May-5 June 2010). These pages show a selected archive of his text-related works, including many that were in the exhibition.
Read John Furnival's obituary in the Guardian.
Drawings & works on paper Paintings
24 x 20.5 inches
Silkscreen, litho and letterpress
Ref: JF029
16 x 13.75 inches
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF008
15.75 x 13.5 inches
Silkscreen and letterpress print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF014
16 x 13.75 inches
Silkscreen and letterpress print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF012
23.75 x 20.5 inches
Silkscreen print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF027
16 x 13.75 inches
Silkscreen and letterpress
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF001
16 x 13.75
Silkscreen and letterpress print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF011
16 x 13.5 inches
Silkscreen and letterpress
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF013
24.75 x 18.5 inches
Letterpress print
Private collection
Ref: JF022
18.5 x 14.75 inches
Silkscreen print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF031
16 x 13.75 inches
Silkscreen and letterpress print
From the folder Letters to the Great Dead with Jonathan Williams
Ref: JF010
27.75 x 22 inches
Offset litho and letterpress print with graphite
From the folder St Swithins Swivet
Ref: JF032
