George Kirkpatrick
La Prose du Transsibérien Re-creation
Size of binding
406 x 157 x 19 mm (16 x 6.2 x .75 in)
Materials
Black calf leather, various other leathers, wood, gold, card, paper, porcelain for clay fired at 2, 000 degrees, glazed for re-firing, two-part resin material, various textiles
From the Collection of Neale Albert
Description of binding
The new version of La Prose is beautifully produced and the colors cried out to be celebrated with a new concept. I made hundreds of pieces of porcelain in as many colours as I could, and sewed the best into a net of linen. For me, it already felt that those small pieces were just bursting out; it was like the leather was ripping and the shackles of the binding were not able to keep them contained. I poured the resin through the nets into the thin shell forms until it was strong enough, and then I could carry on with the rest of the binding. By now, I wanted to create a kind of a shrine that would contain the special book inside as though to keep it safe. Yet it bursts out to tell us that it can’t keep a secret anymore.
Artist bio
George Kirkpatrick was born 1938 in Northern Ireland. He trained as a textile designer, bookbinder and teacher at the Ulster College of Art and Design and at Leicester College of Art. In 1960 a travelling scholarship made possible visits to all the principal bookbinding ateliers in France, including those of Georges Crette and Paul Bonet. He was invited to live and study with Roger Powell and Peter Waters where he carried out studio work for Roger, and assisted with the restoration of the St Chad Gospels. After working on the flood-damaged books in Florence (1967), he entered the Royal College of Art as a graphic design student, graduating in 1970. He was the Senior Publications Designer for the Natural History Museum in London from 1970 to 1974, and from then until today a lecturer at the Kent Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury. Since 1979 George has worked privately in creating bindings and binding-related artefacts for private collectors and gallery exhibitions.
Not for sale